Children’s Book Week is on the way – how will you celebrate the magic of reading?

Children’s Book Week is often the highlight of many early childhood education and care (ECEC) service’s calendars, with the chance to pair up the frosty August weather with the simple joy of curling up with a high quality picture book and reading to children.

While Children’s Book Week (or Book Week, as it is affectionately known in many centres) is officially celebrated from Saturday 17 August – Friday 23 August, many ECEC services, community organisations, schools and libraries around the country will celebrate the joy of reading throughout the month with activities, competitions, storytelling sessions and, of course, the ever popular book parade.

In 2024 the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s 2024 Children’s Book Week theme is Reading is Magic, a theme which encourages families, educators and community members to engage with a good book, and reintroduce themselves and the children they care for to the magic which is found in books. 

While reading for pleasure has a wide range of benefits for children and young people, such as enhancing literacy skills, helping children to understand the world better, and exposure to language, there has been a notable downturn in the number of children who read for pleasure in recent years. 

Events such as Children’s Book Week can go a long way to turning these statistics around, and to promoting reading as an activity of choice for children. 

ECEC services can visit the Children’s Book Council of Australia website for promotional images and resources, along with ideas about how to integrate Children’s Book Week into their services.