Books for Little Bookaburras launched!
On Wednesday 8 May, the Hon. Sabine Winton MLA, Minister for Early Childhood Education, and Bookaburras Ambassador Renae Hayward helped launch the 2024 Books for Little Bookaburras at the KindiLink early learning centre at Bentley Primary School. In her speech, Winton emphasised the importance of local stories by a local publisher for local Western Australian children.
Some 30 of those children and their parents and grandparents enjoyed a storytime session with Renae and the chance to meet Dewey Dex the Premier’s Reading Challenge mascot. They were joined by Hannah Beazley MLA Member for Victoria Park, patrons, authors and representatives from the Department of Education and the Premier’s Reading Challenge.
CEO Alex Allan attended the event. She said:
After an acknowledgement of Country from Bentley Primary School students, Rakis and Natalie, we heard about the importance of reading from our Chair, Clair Medhurst, and from Minister Winton, who reminded families how children loved to be read to again, and again, and again, and how important it is to share stories from local authors and illustrators.
Children enjoyed a noisy sing-along and a fun-filled story time session with Bookaburras Ambassador and author of Say Hooray, Renae Hayward, whose beautiful book of first experiences, illustrated by Rebecca Mills, is featured in the packs this year. As well as Say Hooray, each child received a copy of Helen Milroy’s Bush Birds and another Fremantle Press picture book from one of our local authors and illustrators. All these creators donated their royalties to the program and we are so grateful for their enthusiasm for the program.
It was a very exciting morning for all the families, and for Fremantle Press, as this marks the beginning of a more strategic relationship with KindiLink state wide. KindiLink educators will provide specially tailored activities and support to all centres, helping to create the buzz around reading and the Bookaburras books that we saw at Bentley today.
We were also thrilled to work with the Premier’s Reading Challenge, who sponsored this event, providing a lot of excitement in the playground as Dewey Dex handed out stickers and families enjoyed a delicious morning tea. We look forward to further collaboration as we work together to spread the love of reading further afield, with regional events planned in the coming months.
None of this would be possible without the generous support of the Books for Little Bookaburras sponsors, partners and authors. Our thanks go out to The Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, Wright Burt Foundation, Hesperia Group, Louise Jones in memory of her sister Beverley, a lifelong passionate reader, Paul Jones in memory of Allan and Wendy Jones, Barton Family Foundation and Hartree and Associates Architects, with pilot program support from the Premier’s Summer Reading Challenge and KindiLink. Thanks also to the Fremantle Press authors donating royalties to the Bookaburras program: Renae Hayward and Rebecca Mills, Helen Milroy, Chris Owen and Chris Nixon, Norman Jorgensen and James Foley, Ezekiel Kwaymullina and Ambelin Kwaymullina and Kyle Hughes-Odgers.
