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| We visit bookshops wherever we go. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe |
National Bookshop Day
It is National Bookshop Day on Saturday, 10 August 2013. Have a look at this link to see events in bookshops across the country on Saturday.
Isobelle Carmody on Tour
Author Isobelle Carmody is visiting New Zealand and Australia this month. See her schedule under the "Appearances" tab on Isobelle's website.
Isobelle is a supporter of Reading for Australia and has said she will write a piece for our November authors platform.
Literary Festivals
August is a big month for writers festivals in Australia. See the full list of Australian writers festivals here. There's more information about literary festivals in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland here.
Authors Georgia Blain and Tristan Bancks appeared at the Byron Bay Writers Festival last week, where another of our supporters, book editor Shelley Kenigsberg, gave a workshop. You can read the pieces Georgia and Tristan wrote for Reading for Australia in May, here and here.
The New England Writers Centre in Armidale, NSW is holding its inaugural children's and young adults literature festival, Booked In, from 14 to 18 August.
Then, in September, there's the StoryArts Festival Ipswich (SAFI) 2013. Have a look here.
Book Week
And the biggie for kids, Book Week, runs from Saturday 17 August to Friday, 23 August.
An initiative of the Children's Book Council of Australia, the theme for Book Week, 2013 is "read across the universe."
Events to celebrate books and Australian authors and illustrators will be taking place in schools and public libraries across Australia during Book Week. Ask your school or local public librarian what is happening in your neck of the woods.
MS Readathon
It is not too late to participate in the 2013 MS Readathon, held annually in August. Sign up online or ask your school librarian how you can join this reading extravaganza.
Nowhere Boys
The first four episodes of Nowhere Boys premiered at the Melbourne Film Festival in July and were reviewed here last week. You can read C S McMullen's piece on the Nowhere Boys TV series, written for Reading for Australia in June, here. The series will air on ABC 3 in 2014.
Morris Gleitzman Competition
Penguin Australia is holding a short story competition in which you have to write a story of 500 words or less using every one of Morris Gleitzman's Puffin and Penguin book titles. Competition details can be found here. It closes at 10am AEST on 30 August, 2013.
Morris Gleitzman is also speaking at a couple of bookshops and signing copies of his book, Extra Time in August. Details can be found here.
Children's Laureate
It is possible that you, like me, missed the announcement of Malorie Blackman as the 2013 Children's Laureate back in June. Malorie succeeds Julia Donaldson and will hold the post for the next two years. Read more about it on Malorie's website (scroll down to the news item dated 4 June, 2013).
Other News?
This post has not been put together in any methodical way and there are likely to be other important events and news items I have missed - particularly if the event or news is happening outside Australia. If you know of something other readers may be interested in, drop me a line or tell us about it in the comments section.
My feeling is that little is happening in the northern hemisphere where you are all on holidays but I could be wrong - let me know.
I've just found another great event: Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD) on Wednesday, 4 September. Read more about it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/indigenous-literacy-day.html
Oh, and Andy Griffiths' 39 Storey Treehouse Tour also kicks off in August. See this link for the tour schedule:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.andygriffiths.com.au/events.htm#39storey
What a great collection of reading events happening in August! Don't forget the Reading Hour on 24th August, a great time to drop everything and read your favourites with family and friends! The Love2Read blog from last years National Year of Reading is still there promoting reading and has lots of great ideas and events to share.
ReplyDeleteFor Book Week this year at our school we are having a wonderful time exploring all the short listed books and immersing ourselves in wonderful Australian literature. We are looking forward to doing a range of activities based on the books. We are also having an Author come to visit for our senior students and taking part in the Big Book Swap
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
DeleteI'm interested in the "read across the universe" theme for Book Week 2013 - how has your school interpreted this?
It makes me think of science fiction, space travel and extra-terrestrials! Or maybe it just encourages a really, really wide range of reading - to go outside the comfort zone, where no man has gone before!
What do you think?
At our school we tend to have Book Term rather than Book Week as we have so many things to cram in! This term we have had Tony Bones perform the CBCA shortlisted picture book Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon for our younger classes. It never ceases to amaze me how Tony can bring the book to life. The children loved the performance with many commenting this was the best ever!
ReplyDeleteOur Junior School boys will have a visit by guest author Deborah Abela in the last week of term. With many of the boys great fans of Grimsdon it is sure to be an amazing experience for them.
Our library has been transformed into a book universe with rockets and stars. The students have helped decorate with entries for the Book Week competition to design a 3-D model made mostly from recycled materials and incorporating reading in some way. We have book transporters, robots powered by reading and aliens invading Earth to read our books.
Next week we have book character parades at both of our infant campuses. I have chosen my costume from one of the short listed books, but it is a secret! It is always such fun to see the children in their amazing costumes inspired by their favourite books. Our Northside campus also holds a Book Fair during Book Week.
Our younger classes have been reading a range of the shortlisted books from the Early Childhood and Picture book categories. They will shortly be voting with star stickers for their favourites. This year we all have a special favourite as The Terrible Suitcase is the work of one of our mums.
The Year 6 boys have been scrutinising the picture books as part of Junior Judges. It seems their favourite is Tanglewood. They will also be challenged with a quiz next week with the winners in each class being treated to a pizza lunch in the Library!
All the other classes will be creating something from one of the shortlisted books (with some inspiration from Zart Art!). For example the Year 5’s will try to emulate Arthur Boyd’s portraits of ANZACS and the Year 1’s will create colourful umbrella’s for Peggy.
Later in the term we also do the Great Book Swap in conjunction with The Indigenous Literacy Foundation. This is the fourth year we have taken part and it has slowly grown each year. The children donate their preloved books and then bring in a gold coin (or two) to swap for one of the donated books. It runs for the entire week in the Library, but I also have swaps with our Infants before school. The money raised is used to purchase books for Indigenous children in remote areas of Australia.
And the theme Read Across the Universe to me means that you can read anywhere!
I'm sure 2013 Book Week will be fun and exciting especially for children! This will be a day where learning and fun in ONE.
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