Open a Book

Open a book and you will find, people and places of every kind;

Open a book and you can be, anything you want to be;

Open a book and you can share, wondrous words you find in there;

Open a book and I will too, you read to me, and I’ll read to you!

Written by Jane Baskwill

 

 

Here at Epping Primary School, we value the importance of having an engaging learning space in both of our campus libraries where students can unlock the power of information and imagination which helps children to discover the love for reading.

Giving students access to good books and the opportunity to choose their own motivates them to read more.  

 

Both of our campus libraries have a vast selection of books and resources for students to read and enjoy as well as an engaging and fun environment. During the year our libraries host a variety of programs to help encourage that love of reading. Click on the links below to see more information about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Borrowing

Both campus libraries allow students to borrow books to take home to read and enjoy as well as borrowing for their classroom Café program.  Please see below the procedures for borrowing from the library.

 

 

 

Every student who wishes to borrow library books to take home to enjoy will need to bring a suitable library bag with them to the library.  Suitable library bags are bags that will protect the books from liquid spills or from being lost or damaged.  Suitable bags can be sourced from a variety of locations including Kmart, Target, Big W, or even the official school book supplier. Plastic bags are not suitable library bags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students can borrow up to 3 books to take home during their library session and can enjoy them for 2 weeks. Students must return their library books each fortnight when they visit the library where they can exchange them for new and exciting books.

 

 

 

 

Book Club

 

Book Club provides families with an affordable and convenient way to bring the best in children’s literature into their homes. Each issue contains curated, age-appropriate titles that have been carefully selected and levelled by a dedicated team of professional booklovers. Click on the link to go straight to the Book Club Parent Portal to place your orders:  https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Login.aspx

 

 

Book Fair

 

Book Fairs give students and families access to thousands of affordable, popular books from the world's top publishers, inspiring a lifelong love of reading and generating much-needed funds for our school library. At each of our Book Fairs, you’ll find the newest and most popular children’s books from the world's top publishers - from multicultural titles and graphic novels to award-winners and tried-and-true classics that will pique every child’s interest in a range of subjects and encourage a lifelong love of reading.

 

Epping Primary School hosts a Book Fair each year, alternating between each campus.  All students and parents from either campus are welcome to visit us in the library during our book fair sales times.  Please see below for more information about this year’s Book Fair.

 

 

This year’s annual Book Fair will be held at our Greenbrook Campus library from 18th May to 23 May 2022.  

(More information will be available soon.)

 

 

 

 

Premiers’ Reading Challenge

 

The Premiers’ Reading Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books each year.  It is free of charge for students to participate in the challenge.

 

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers. Please see below for more information on how the Reading Challenge works and to get permission forms or link to the online guide.

 

Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and/or teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.

 

The Reading Challenge books in our library are all marked with identification labels showing the recommendation for each of the three year level groups as shown on the chart.

 

Click on the link to access the permission form to participate in this year’s Reading Challenge. 

2024 Consent of Parents for Student Participation.

 

Click on the link to access the online Guide on how to use the platform, record books students have read and to access the book lists.

 

 

 

Children’s Book Council of Australia & Book Week

 

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is aimed at promoting quality literature for young Australians and to support and encourage a wide range of Australian writers and illustrators of children’s books.  Each year the CBCA announces a selection of Notable Australian Children’s books in 5 different categories.  Those lists then get shortlisted down to 5 titles in each category where 1 book from each category is nominated as a Winner with 2 Honour books.

 

The shortlisted, winner, and honour books can all be found on our library shelves and tie in with Book Week which is held in August each year. Book Week is celebrated Australia wide. 

 

This year’s book week theme is: Reading is magic

 

Click on the links at each award label to see the selection of books that are part of the 2022 CBCA book of the year awards.

 

 

 

 

CBCA Book Awards - Notable List 2024

https://cbca.org.au/notables-2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCWe9UYzPTY&t=3s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CBCA Book Awards - Short List 2024

https://cbca.org.au/shortlist-2024

2024 CBA Book of the Year Awards Shortlist announcement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CBCA Book Awards - Winners 2024

(Link to Winner and Honour books when available)

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALIA – National Simultaneous Storytime

 

Epping Primary School participates in the National Simultaneous Storytime which is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA).  Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by Australians is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, homes and children’s facilities all over the country and the world. See below for the book that is being featured during 2024.

 

Bowerbird Blues 

Written by Aura Parker

Illustrated by Aura Parker

 

 

 

Books for Lesotho (Africa)

 

For several years now the Epping Primary School library has been supporting the drive to help put books on the shelves of less fortunate countries so their students can have access to books to help develop their ability to spell and use correct grammar, to widen their vocabularies, to increase their confidence in English, and to allow them to develop an appreciation for reading for enjoyment.    

 

 

We collect donations of books (new and used) suitable to send to Lesotho to help primary and secondary schools establish a library in their school.  Books in good condition (fiction and non-fiction), ranging from first picture books up to our Year 12 standard, are packaged and sent to our contacts in Adelaide who transport them to Lesotho to be distributed to schools across the country.

 

Book donations can be left at either campus library.  Click on the link if you would like to find out more information on this project.https://www.booksforlesotho.org/