Promoting Book Week 2024 - Reading is Magic

This year’s Book Week will be held in August, with schools around Australia celebrating the book of the year awards on August 17th-23rd. This year's theme of “Reading is Magic”, allows for reflection on our indigenous culture by listening to country as the first storyteller. 

The special focus on quality children’s literature during Book Week culminates with the announcement of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year and related Awards on Friday 16th August. To see this year’s shortlist and find out how to get involved in the official celebrations, visit the CBCA website, Facebook and Twitter accounts and follow the hashtag #CBCA2024.

In this post, we’ve gathered a range of ideas for creating a buzz about Book Week in your school library. We hope you’ll find something to inspire you!

Ideas for promoting Book Week 2024

Start here: Inspiration from the creators themselves. 

There is a variety of Book Week merchandise available on the CBCA website. This year’s merchandise has been designed by the talented award-winning illustrator, Jess Racklyef 

Online Resources

The Teachstarter blog has an extensive selection of lesson ideas, games, activities, and competitions with downloadable resources.  

Activity Books for Book Week

If you’re looking for something in a hard-copy format, the Ipswich District Teacher-Librarian Network website has published themed activity books each Book Week since 2000. All are available to purchase from their website.  

Dress up and make-believe

Book Week is the perfect occasion to bring your favourite book characters to life – by becoming them for a day! With a little creativity (and perhaps a lot of daring), you can dress up and delight your students and help everyone find their celebratory spirit. We put together some ideas for costumes, which can be found in this blog. 

Library Displays

Still searching for clues to create the perfect themed library display? Madison’s Library Facebook group and Pinterest have some gorgeous examples based on picture books, comics, and literary genres such as fantasy or sci-fi.  

Indulge your curiosity with the school library collection

In addition to the excitement of book character dress-ups and other fun Book Week activities, Oliver v5 library software offers a range of possibilities for deeper exploration of the shortlisted titles and other books. Using Oliver v5, students can not only find their Book Week book by easily searching and locating items in the library collection but also engage more fully with each of the featured texts by writing and sharing book reviews.

In this great article, Book Week escape with Oliver, Sharon McGuinness from Thirroul Public School discusses how Oliver v5 can benefit both Teachers and Students with Book Week.

If you’ve got some great ideas for activities celebrating Book Week, we’d love to hear from you. Share with us via Twitter @SoftlinkEdu or, if you would like to share a guest blog detailing your celebrations, email communications@softlinkint.com.

Hear about schools using Softlink Solutions to create a more engaging library experience for students:

• Trevanna Cooper, CBC Fremantle’s Teacher Librarian, describes how the college library promotes innovative thinking and helps students avoid research overwhelm with Softlink’s information curating tool, LearnPath.
• Coburg High School’s library has seen improved student engagement and increased borrowing as a result of Oliver v5’s streamlined functionality and engaging interface. Hear more in this video case study.
• Adria Juros, Resource Centre Manager at Kardinia International College, shares about their year 7 orientation week program - how they introduce students to the library and help them to feel welcome and confident as they enter secondary school.
   

For more information, please see the CBCA Book Week page.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published August 2018 and has been updated for freshness, relevance, and accuracy in August 2024.