Togetherness at story-time

HOW many children do you estimate are sitting down right now to read a picture storybook, as you read this article?

Last Wednesday morning at 11am, many little literacy-lovers across Australia sat down at the exact same moment to take part in National Simultaneous Storytime, all reading the same book, Family Tree.

A group of pre-schoolers visiting Bannockburn Library enjoyed the picture storybook written by well-known Australian singer-songwriter Josh Pyke and illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh, which was presented to them by a guest reader, Golden Plains Shire mayor Cr Gavin Gamble.

Geelong Regional Libraries board chair Ron Nelson said the initiative promoted reading aloud to children, which is beneficial to their overall development and literacy skills.

“Libraries play a crucial role in fostering a love of reading in children from a young age and provide collections and resources to families which help to make reading fun and engaging,” he said.

“Our library members have access to a huge collection of children’s books, eCollections, as well as early literacy programs and children’s events, such as this one.

“Victorian libraries welcome thousands of children and their families into story time, baby time, and other literacy programs each week. Libraries are the primary providers of early years literacy programs for children aged zero to three, and their families.”

National Simultaneous Storytime is led by the Australian Library and Information Association, and has been running for 22 years, with libraries, kindergartens, schools, and book shops traditionally participating.

Across at least 33,000 registered locations, more than 1.98 million children were part of the initiative last year.