News: 2019 National Simultaneous Storytime

Wednesday 22 of May 2019 marks the 19th National Simultaneous Storytime event, an annual advocacy campaign, hosted by the Australian Library and Information Association.

Each year, one picture book is selected for a simultaneous read-aloud event held in libraries, schools, pre-schools, family homes, childcare centres, bookshops, children’s hospitals and communities across Australia and New Zealand, where two nations read together as one.
 

Last year we saw over 1 million kids join in the campaign. This year we aim to drive the numbers of participants even higher, to help promote the importance of reading and literacy for children.

This year, the selected story is Alpacas with Maracas by Matt Cosgrove, published by Koala Books for Scholastic Australia. Alpacas with Maracas is the sequel to Australia’s best-selling picture book, Macca the Alpaca. It is a beautifully illustrated book and is a cheerful tale that promotes friendly competitive behaviour along with the idea that having fun and ‘giving your all’ are as important as winning.

Creator Matt Cosgrove, will be at the State Library of New South Wales (Macquarie Street, Sydney) on Wednesday the 22 May at 11:00am to read Alpacas with Maracas.

'I’m so honoured that my book Alpacas with Maracas has been selected for National Simultaneous Storytime for 2019,' says author Matt Cosgrove. 'It’s truly incredible that last year there was over one million registered storytimers across Australia and New Zealand, all celebrating books and literacy together. I hope we can maintain that remarkable momentum and, with the help of all those fabulous librarians, teachers, parents, grandparents and carers out there, once again get just as many (if not more!) kids excited about reading!'

This very special event will be FREE and open to the public. Bookings are essential – www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/national-simultaneous-storytime

 

Scholastic Australia is proud to support ALIA and this wonderful initiative, which promotes reading and children’s literacy.

Last year Scholastic Australia and ALIA worked together to stream the National Simultaneous Storytime event live over Facebook from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and over 1,062,230 children in more than 8,255 event locations registered to read Tony Wilson’s Hickory Dickory Dash.

To help celebrate this massive literacy event, Scholastic Australia will be gifting children who attend the participating hospitals a copy of Alpacas with Maracas. The aim is to connect as many children as possible, who are currently undergoing hospital treatment, through the power of storytelling.