Well it is that time of the year when we celebrate Book Week, and as with our whole lives at the moment this year it will look different! Book Week is a time to celebrate Australian Authors and Illustrators and the wonderful books they provide to keep us both entertained and informed. Each year since 1945 the Children’s Book Council of Australia has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian Children's Authors and Illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians create colourful displays, develop activities, run competitions and tell stories relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading. At Mary Immaculate we usually celebrate with our Annual Book Character parade, as well as a variety of activities in class and in the Library centred around the winning books.

Six books are short-listed in each of the categories, and the judges then decide the winners based on select criteria.The judges assess entries primarily for:

1. Literary merit – aesthetic qualities of language, standing the test of time, realistic characters.
2. Cohesiveness – language, theme, style.
3. Appeal to the implied readership.
4. Quality – illustrations, book design, production, editing.
5. Originality in the treatment of literary elements as they apply to the form of the work.

Consideration is given to the quality of illustrations, book design, editing, production, printing and binding.

The winners were announced on Friday 20 August at 12 noon - if you are interested take a look at the CBCA website:

https://www.cbca.org.au/cbca-book-week

This year the teachers will be organising some fun ways to celebrate online with your class. You can still dress up as your favourite book character and share that with your teacher. We look forward to seeing lots of wonderful characters!

Premiers' Reading Challenge: Remember we still have just over one week till 1 September to finalise our PRC entries. Congratulations to the many students who have completed the Challenge, an excellent achievement, especially considering the difficult year we have had! We have quite a few students who are almost there, so if you need to finish remember that you can email your list of books to your class teacher and I can register them for you!  Even though the Premiers' Reading Challenge is nearly finished, we do not stop reading – we must continue to put in an effort to read every day, reading is a lifelong skill!

Scholastic Book Club: In response to the current lock downs, Scholastic has added the temporary option for all parents to have their orders sent directly to your homes. This option will enable you to place and receive orders while your children are undertaking schooling at home. 

• When parents place your Issue 6 Book Club orders, you will have the option to select home delivery.
• The home delivery option will automatically be added to schools in the lock down area.
• The home delivery option can be selected by parents at the time of ordering for $7.50
• If you are interested you can view the catalogue online this week for Issue 6 - https://scholastic.com.au/media/6421/bc621web.pdf

Ordering online is the only way to order, and you are able to opt for home delivery. Thank you for your support with this program.

Take care - keep reading! 

"If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books."

Roald Dahl

Happy reading!

Mrs Susan Bryant

Teacher Librarian