THE Children\u2019s Book Council of Australia\u2019s annual Book Week kicks off this Saturday, 21 August, with the nationwide celebration of the written word set to continue until next Friday.<\/p>\n
Ballarat Libraries are leading this year\u2019s activities in the region, and children\u2019s and youth librarian Julie Bull said young readers are keen to take part.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage we\u2019re looking at running special story times across our three libraries for pre-schoolers and we\u2019ll be focusing on the books that were shortlisted in the early childhood category,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A special event for school-aged children in collaboration with local illustrator, Ben Sanders, and the Art Gallery of Ballarat is already booked out and will go ahead subject to COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Book Week theme is Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds, allowing children to immerse themselves in their favourite fictitious stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually allows for a lot of fantasy for this year,\u201d Ms Bull said. \u201cIt\u2019s so open ended, if you ask kids what that means to them, you\u2019ll get a different answer every time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBook Week is a great way for children, libraries and schools all to get together and we celebrate books, and we really focus on Australian authors and illustrators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to acknowledge how important they are for our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Bull said getting children to read was \u201cmore important than ever\u201d in the digital age as it improves spelling and literacy abilities and strengthens young imaginations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the library we really encourage that children read for pleasure. Whatever they\u2019re interested in, there is a book about it so you can read to your heart\u2019s desire no matter what level you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acting coordinator of community engagement and partnerships at Ballarat Libraries Julie Stevens said it wasn\u2019t just young readers looking to transport to another world through the pages of a book.<\/p>\n
\u201cReading has been a great refuge for people over the last 18 months while we\u2019ve been in this COVID environment and public libraries have been incredibly important in that for people, supporting that as an activity that people can really find some solace in during this time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage people to keep in touch with us, see what\u2019s on offer, come in and see us and borrow some books.\u201d<\/p>\n