Children’s Book Week this year is coming up on 16-22 August. It’s a special week on the Australian literary calendar as an opportunity to highlight quality Australian children’s literature and, as the 2014 theme suggests, spend the week connecting readers with great stories. We are fortunate in Australia to have a strong community of writers and enthusiasts supporting the writing of children’s and adolescent’s literature. They are ensuring stories are written through Australian eyes and embedded into young minds at a time when our identity can be diluted by the mass of other pursuits that fill the lives of young people.
School libraries in particular plan this week as an opportunity to connect with readers, their teachers and their families. Visiting authors conduct writing workshops, book highlight activities are planned and special efforts are made to tie the event into student programs.
The new Australian Curriculum also supports the role of local literature in our students’ lives stating:
The presence of Australian literary texts and an increasingly informed appreciation of the place of Australian literature among other literary traditions will be part of the national English curriculum. Australia’s evolving ethnic composition and the increasing national importance placed on our geographic location in the Asia-Pacific region brings with it a variety of cultural, social, and ethical interests and responsibilities. These interests, and the collective cultural memories that have accumulated around them, are represented in a range of literatures including the inscriptional and oral narrative traditions of Indigenous Australians as well as contemporary Indigenous literature.
- Children’s Book Council of Australia – official Book Week site
http://cbca.org.au/awards.htm - Book Week Connect to Reading- ScoopIt by teacher librarian Petra Pollum
http://www.scoop.it/t/book-week-2012-champions-read – - Reading – Active and engaging wiki by Rhonda Powling – Head of Library Whitefriar’s College (thanks to Rhonda for leading me to video above)
http://reading-active-and-engaging.wikispaces.com/ - Ipswich District Teacher Librarian Network – an enthusiastic group from South East Queensland
http://idtl.net.au/book-week/view-resource.php?bw_resyear=2014 - Children’s books daily – blog by Megan Daley, teacher librarian
http://childrensbooksdaily.com/book-week-reading-challenge-connect-reading/ - Primary English Teaching Association of Australia – 2014 CBCA guide
http://www.petaa.edu.au/teaching-resources/2014-cbca-guide - Pinterest board by Audrey Nay, teacher librarian
http://www.pinterest.com/audreynay/2014-cbca-bookweek/
I do believe I have more ideas to share and will leave a link in case you agree! http://www.thebookchook.com/2014/05/activities-for-childrens-book-week-2014.html
An oversight on my behalf Susan, especially as Rhonda had drawn it to my attention! Your generosity in sharing such a rich resource is appreciated. Many thanks.