Canberra, 25 May: Today, will see a record number of children across Australia, New Zealand and around the world, join together to read the same book at the same time, as part of the Australian Library and Information Association’s (ALIA) National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) 2022.
This year is ALIA’s biggest Storytime ever with the largest number of participants registered in its 22 year history.
Nicole Barnes, Acting CEO Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)says, “As of yesterday, we had over 2 million (2,186,347) participants registered for National Simultaneous Storytime 2022 from 59,038 locations around Australia and the world. This is an increase of more than 15% from last year’s NSS, which was in itself a ground-breaking event that featured a live reading from the International Space Station. We have participants joining us this year from our biggest range of countries ever across Australia and New Zealand to the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Tunisia, UAE, UK, USA, Vanuatu, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Fiji, Hong King, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia and the Netherlands!”
This year’s book Family Tree is written by award winning Australian singer-songwriter and children’s book author Josh Pyke, renowned for his unique and wonderful storytelling and lyricism and beautifully illustrated by picture book creator Ronojoy Ghosh, published by Scholastic Australia specifically for the event.
"Family Tree is such a special book to me. The last couple of years has really highlighted the importance and value of community and family, no matter what that family looks like. When I look at my children, in my mind, I see a map with lines drawn from Vietnam, Britain, America and Denmark, all leading to our home in Australia.” Josh Pyke said.
This event is an important annual reading campaign that fosters a sense of community, fun and excitement around reading. Every year a picture book, by an Australian children's author and illustrator is read.
The idea for a national simultaneous event followed a successful Statewide Storytime programme in Victoria in 2000 and then ALIA decided to expand it across its library network and also into schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes and bookshops around Australia, as part of Australia's Library and Information Week. It grows bigger every year!
It’s not too late to register and join in the fun for this free reading event. More information
can be found here.