Celebrating Children's Book Week!

This year, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation is delighted and honoured to be supporting the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) for Children’s Book Week. This year’s theme, Australia! Story Country, is particularly applicable to our work in the remote Indigenous communities where this year alone, we have delivered books to more than 185 communities.

The winners of the CBCA’s Book of the Year was announced this morning and as Executive Director of ILF, Karen Williams attended the ceremony at the NSW Teachers Federation in Sydney with the ILF team. 

To celebrate the 70th year of the awards, His Excellency The Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove, Governor-General of Australia and Lady Cosgrove  presented the awards, including the CBCA Lifetime Achievement Award that went to Robert Ingpen. See here for all winners.  

His Excellency spoke about how the CBCA awards and the incredible short list of authors and illustrators is testament that "books are alive and well". He said,"capturing children's imagination is the job of the author, and they've all done a wonderful job this year. A book is a trip to another world, where imagination runs free - there is a child in all of us."

A huge congratulations to all involved, and it was fantastic to see so many of the publishers who support our book programs nominated, such as Pan McMillan, Penguin Random House, Walker Books, Allen & Unwin and The National Library of Australia. 

As part of the ceremony, students Jesse Blenhorn and Paige Bradshaw from Blackheath Public School, spoke about the importance of reading to them."All children should read and have fun when reading. Books opens up new worlds and makes a huge difference to our lives," said Jesse. 

It’s important for the ILF to recognise and celebrate Children's Book Week as some of our biggest supporters are children. Some schools have already started their Great Book Swaps in the lead up to Indigenous Literacy Day (7 Sep). Before the CBCA awards this morning, we visited Camdenville Public School to meet the kids and thank them for raising over $200 from their event this week.

Meanwhile, 12 year old Sam Giles, a student at St Peters Lutheran College, in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly, is making a huge difference. Sam, a proud ILF Student Ambassador, has already organised a Choc Toss, a raffle and a bake sale. Now he’s busy organising a Great Book Swap to raise funds for Indigenous Literacy Day. For the ILF, Sam’s a winner - an inspiration to us all! Read more of Sam's story here.

Children’s Book Week runs from 20 – 26 August and you can support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation in a number of ways. Take a leaf from Sam’s book and run a Great Book Swap. It’s easy! Collect your friends, workmates or fellow students, donate a book and swap with a gold coin - register here. Alternatively, you might consider supporting us with a donation. 

However you celebrate Children's Book Week this year, we wish you all the best!

Camdenville Public School

• Posted 19 August, 2016