As Point Cook children’s librarian Monica Kennedy read from the pages of picture story book ‘Family Tree’ by Josh Pyke to children attending the story time session, thousands of kids across the nation settled in to listen to their librarian read too.
National Simultaneous Storytime is an event held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association where kids in libraries, schools and childcares read from a preselected book.
Ms Kennedy believes the story session encourages a love for books and reading, while also celebrating Australian authors.
“It’s been shown that by sharing books daily with children that they have at least a six month headstart when they begin their schooling journey,” she said.
“We’d like them to come into the library to see that reading can be an enjoyable experience and for parents to get ideas of engaging their children with books.”
Ms Kenney said the children “absolutely love” story time and she enjoys developing a relationship with the families that attend.
“A lot of these kids we’ve seen from babies as well, one girls came to ‘baby time’ with her baby sister and I was like ‘oh wow, you used to come to baby time’,” she said.
“It’s a lovely way to build connections within the community.”
