On 24 May, our Years 5 and 6 students: Ellis Cario, Marcus Juhasz, Flynn Gilmore, Ben Mayne, Max Pargeter, Rhys McEvoy, Noah Nunn, River Sullivan, Jacob Pelletier, Jake Mussett, Lachlan Moore, Arlo Buchanan, Tom Brown and Luke Haddock combined to enjoy National Simultaneous Storytime being read to by our charismatic senior boys, Tom Hughes, Charlie Murphy, Conor Andrews, Bertie Cottel and Harrison Rimell.
Held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), each year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read at the same time in educational spaces such as schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, as well as in bookshops, libraries and even family homes!
For NSS 2023 our students were able to join in with over 2 million participants. Wow!
NSS for 2023 had the special guests of Indigo and Bubba resident sloths from the Singapore Zoo join their zoo keeper in a special video reading; we had the author and illustrator read and draw live from Sydney Zoo, with the great audience of Koalas and local primary school students, and not to mention another reading from the zookeepers at Marwell Zoo who read to ‘Santas’ their resident sloth.
This year, Ms Tamara Bliznjakovic (Waverley College Library Technician) creatively organised this fun-filled event in The Grange Building for Waverley College, which promoted the age-old value of reading and literacy via the Australian children’s book The Speedy Sloth by Rebecca Young (author) and Heath McKenzie (illustrator).
Our senior boys were such pros! Their expressive reading and animated faces brought this book to life, illuminating the concept of perseverance and courage with colour and humour:
“It was finally time for the event of the year, Spike couldn’t believe it—The Great Race was here! The other sloths said it couldn’t be done, but Spike didn’t care, she was ready to run!”
And nothing beats books read with zesty lemon homemade muffins, fruit straps and iconic Aussie Tim Tams.
Library Team
