‘The Truck Cat’ selected for NSS 2025

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has selected The Truck Cat (HGCP), written by Deborah Frenkel and illustrated by Danny Snell, for the 2025 National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) event.

The NSS event will be held on Wednesday 21 May 2025 at 12pm (AEST), and registrations for the event have already opened.

‘The Truck Cat is a story that’s all about belonging and connection,’ said Frenkel, ‘so it’s an absolute thrill that this book will connect so many readers through National Simultaneous Storytime in 2025’. ‘I’m enormously honoured on Tinka the cat’s behalf!’

Hardie Grant publisher Chren Byng said: ‘The Truck Cat is hugely important to everyone who worked on it, and we’re enormously grateful that ALIA have lifted it up in this special way.’

As part of a new selection process, The Truck Cat was chosen from over 80 titles by an panel comprising members of ALIA’s Children’s and Youth Services special interest group and the Australian Coalition for School Libraries, as well as children’s literacy consultants, which praised the book for its ‘universal themes such as home, loneliness and migration’.

ALIA CEO Cathie Warburton said: ‘NSS is a reminder of the importance of language development, learning and literacy and the role that libraries play in fostering these essential skills.’

Bowerbird Blues by Aura Parker (Scholastic) was read for the NSS 2024 event, with over 2.3 million participants at over 20,000 locations.

Category: Local news