PRIMARY school students donned their most creative costumes and took on the role of their favourite book characters this week to mark Book Week 2022.  

Book Week has been held annually by The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) since 1945 and aims to bring children and books together across the country.

During Book Week, schools and public libraries celebrate books and Australian children’s authors and illustrators, while highlighting the importance of reading, with this year’s theme being ‘Dreaming with eyes open’.

Locally, the event was celebrated by many schools, including Good Shepherd College Junior Campus and Good Shepherd Early Childhood Services, and Gray Street Primary School, who marked the occasion with dress-up days.

Good Shepherd College head of Junior Campus, Ali Wedding, said the school focused on encouraging all students to read and Book Week provided a great opportunity to reinforce that message.

Addressing all students at the whole school assembly and Book Week parade on Thursday, Ms Wedding said reading not only allowed people to explore new worlds but also expanded their knowledge.

“If you read every day for 10 minutes, your reading vocabulary and your understanding about the world (expands) and if we forget to do our 10 minutes each day or our 15 minutes each day, then our vocabulary and our understanding of the world doesn’t reach that high level,” she said.

“We cannot tell you enough how important it is to be a reader and we do everything we can to help you with that skill while we’re here at school.

“Reading is fantastic – share your love of reading with others – share your books with other people.”

Gray Street Primary School principal, Ben Kelson, said their Book Week parade yesterday was a fun and different way for students to approach reading.

“The kids certainly enjoy these whole school celebrations and with literacy being such a big part of day-to-day education in every school, it’s nice to be able to celebrate a different aspect and have kids dress up and celebrate their favourite book character,” he said.

“The costumes were very wide ranging, there were many characters from Harry Potter, quite a few Thing One and Thing Two’s (The Cat in the Hat), and some students went back to the traditional, for example there were some Little Red Riding Hoods.”

The Greater Hamilton Library also celebrated Book Week with over 140 students from across the Southern Grampians attending for reading and craft sessions held throughout the week.

The sessions focused on books that were awarded prizes in the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, including ‘Jetty Jumping’ and ‘When the Waterhole Dries Up’.