Your local guide to fun, food and family life.

In this section

• Magazine Amendment
  Apologies from the Family Time Editors.
• Motherly love 'does breed confidence'
  Being lavished with affection by your mum as a young child makes you better able to cope with the stresses and strains of adult life, say researchers.
• Link between inactivity and obesity queried
  Researchers have challenged the assumption that a lack of exercise causes children to put on weight.
• City Centre Cycle Race
  Get on your bike and compete in a series of bicycle races on Sunday 29 August 2010In partnership with Cycling Development West Midlands, and Born to Bike, we are holding a day of cycle racing in Lichfield on Sunday 29 August 2010.
• Budget: Osborne's 'tough' package puts VAT up to 20%
  Chancellor George Osborne increased VAT from 17.
• George Osborne outlines detail of £6.2bn spending cuts
  Chancellor George Osborne has outlined plans to cut £6.

Boys prefer to read simpler books, survey suggests

Boys choose to read less challenging books than girls and this gets more pronounced as they get older, according to a UK-wide survey of reading habits.