Australian Reading Hour digital event attracts 17,000
The 2023 Australian Reading Hour on Thursday 9 March involved more than 250 events across the country. Over 17,000 students watched the The Magic of Storytelling live digital event, held in partnership by Australia Reads and the Sydney Opera House, hosted by author and comedian Peter Helliar and featuring bestselling children’s authors, including Sally Rippin.
In Tasmania, Tasmania Reads celebrated Reading Hour with a week of activities including the launch of the Australia Reads Story Snippets campaign, with Tasmanian buses featuring posters with QR codes linking to the featured free chapters of Australian books Once a Stranger (Zoya Patel, Hachette Australia), This Devastating Fever (Sophie Cunningham, Ultimo), Limberlost (Robbie Arnott, Text), The Angry Women’s Choir (Meg Bignell, Michael Joseph), With Love from Wish & Co (Minnie Darke, Michael Joseph), The Bluffs (Kyle Perry, Affirm), The Gifted Son (Genevieve Gannon, A&U) and The Labyrinth (Amanda Lohrey, Text).
Other events held to celebrate the hour included poetry slams and book launches, pizza and pyjama reading parties, ghost stories for adults, and panel discussions. At Dymocks George Street in Sydney volunteers read in the store’s windows, and also in Sydney, Barangaroo was the setting for a picnic with free books attended by Hachette Australia.
At Mataranka Library in the Northern Territory a Reading Hour event attracted so many attendees the venue had to be changed, while in Canberra authors Rick Morton and Anne Brinsden joined MPs Graham Perrett and Anne Webster and the Parliamentary Friends in Canberra group to discuss the importance they place on growing up as readers in regional Australia. Also in Canberra, senator Helen Polley spoke in the chamber about the campaign and the importance of reading and literacy.
‘It was wonderful to see so many tens of thousands of Australians from different walks of life stop to talk about books and share stories together for Australian Reading Hour,’ said Anna Burkey from Australia Reads. ‘From Parliament House to community libraries, public parks and local buses, Australians gave themselves permission to take time out to read—and loved it! And studies show that it really is good for us—from out mental wellbeing to our empathy, connection to others and sense of self, curling up with a good book has so many benefits for ourselves, our families and our friends.’
The Reading Hour was featured nationally on ABC TV News Breakfast, with host Lisa Millar interviewing Sally Rippin about the importance of reading, and on Studio 10, which featured Peter Helliar talking about the day’s events. In the Northern Territory, NT News reported on NT librarian P J Andrews, who read What Do Crocodiles Really Think (Freya Galati) to a crocodile in the Crocosaurus Cove ‘Cage of Death’.
Australia Reads has two follow-up events on 16 and 27 March: a conversation with Andy Jackson, Eliza Hull and Matt Formston on why representation matters in books for all ages, in partnership with Vision Australia; and a Teen Reading event on how to keep your teenager reading.
Pictured: Readers at the Mataranka Library Reading Hour event.
Category: Local news
