Celebrating National Simultaneous Storytime

This week, together with an estimated 2 million participants from Australia, NZ and the Asia-Pacific, we celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime. The book, Family Tree, by musician Josh Pyke, is a wonderful story about the passing of the seasons told from the point of view of a Eucalyptus tree that oversees the life of a young girl, who grows into a young woman and eventually into a mother with children of her own.

The event is organised by the Australian Library and Information Association to promote the value of reading and literacy in libraries, schools, workplaces and communities around the country. The book is always by an Australian author and illustrator and was designed to be read aloud simultaneously at 11am on Wednesday 25 May.

A recording of the Head Master and the School Captain reading the book was played at both the Middle and Senior school assemblies, as well as at the Field Studies Centre, while staff from the Drama Faculty and the library’s own Ms Courtenay performed a reading of the book for staff during recess.

It marked a welcome return of live events to the library space and we are very much looking forward to the relaunch of our books@breakfast author talks next week. If you have registered to attend, look out for an email from our event co-ordinator towards the end of the week.

“I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.” – Emma Thompson