General News
22 August, 2025
Costumes, colour and creativity at 2025
Children’s Book Week was celebrated across the shire highlighting the importance and fun of reading for local kids.
The region got a taste of the fantastical this week as local kids embraced all things literary for the eightieth annual Children’s Book Week.
The transformational power of storytelling was made literal with children and adults alike donning costumes across the Central Goldfields Shire and beyond.
For eight decades, The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has shared the worlds of countless stories with Australian kids highlighting reading’s importance and potential.
All this week local teachers and librarians ran an itinerary of reading, parades, book fairs, and fun for local kids and their community.
Avoca Primary School’s reading literacy specialist Suzanne Blackie said the week’s focus was on making books fun.
In Avoca that meant the staff becoming the ensemble from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — including Ms Blackie answering student questions as the Magic Mirror.
“It basically allows the book to come alive for the students,” she said.
It’s a sentiment echoed across many local schools, including Timor Primary School, with their principal Andrew Tatchell leading the parade as a dinosaur.
“I think it’s important to model to students and parents the enjoyment of reading,” he said.
“Reading is the core of everything.”
Mr Tatchell explained reading is more than experiencing a good story.
“Reading opens up different worlds, reading is magic, for kids to be successful that’s key,” he said.
Around 20 minutes away in Talbot, the town’s school principal Tess Kelly emphasised the importance of literacy not only for children but their local community.
“They need to be able to read to do every other thing,” she said.
It’s important for Ms Kelly that regional kids have the opportunity to learn about the world beyond their immediate surroundings.
“If you only know what’s in your community then your pathway in life is limited to the jobs that you see your parents doing or your family doing,” she said.
“I want these kids to know that if they want to go and be a zoologist, or if they want to go and be a fashion designer, then they have the skills behind them.”
MEC’s literacy leader Josephine Harris said the power of reading is in opening up the world for local kids.
“Nothing is going to change your life quicker than being literate. Nothing is going to give you more opportunities than being literate,” she said.
Beyond the benefits of reading for work and play, Carisbrook Primary School teacher Matthew Walker said Book Week is a celebration of Australian authors and illustrators.
“It’s showing kids there’s lots of really fantastic authors and illustrators out there right now,” he said.
The CBCA’s Aussie focus, Mr Walker explained, helped regional kids learn more about the country.
“It’s a way to contextualise yourself within the broader Australian community,” he said.
While local school teachers unanimously agree that reading is an essential, and fun, skill to have Ms Blackie said learning to read is a marathon not a sprint.
“If you read every day for 20 minutes that’s what the ideal is,” she said.
But she understands that life gets busy, kids can be difficult, but there are tricks she recommends.
From a parent saying they’ll read two pages if the kid reads one, or acting like they don’t know which way the book goes — turning reading into a game can go a long way.
“I’d rather see a child read one or two pages than no pages at all,” she said.
As the event winds down it’s another storybook ending for local children, their teachers, and the community as a whole.
