The National Year of Reading 2012 was celebrated at Dickson Library in Canberra today, as part of a community celebration. It was so fantastic to see a plethora of kids and parents come along to kick off the proceedings with Story Time.
I first kicked off with a quick peek at my new book - Australian Story - the first kids in Australia to see it! So that was exciting. Then it was a reading of Riley and the Grumpy Wombat . . . we even had a visit from a very cheeky wombat, who kept peeking out from behind my chair (thank you, Yamu!) and being a right pest...
But I managed to grab her, and off she dashed into the crowd as the story began...
It was so much fun reading to this younger age group - they really allow me to ham it up! (and hamming is something I simply cannot resist).
After the reading, Senator Kate Lundy came along to cut The Cake - a magnificent book provided by the very clever Kate from Kate Makes Cakes.
This was some delicious book, let me tell you. I so love it when a cake's insides are as good as the outside.
Kate had the kids totally engaged as they gathered around and sliced on through...
. . . then made LOVE 2 READ hand signals with the kids.
It was so lovely to catch up with local author Tracey Hawkins (below left) and to spend time chatting with the superlative Jackie French, whose stunning new book - A Day To Remember, illustrated by Mark Wilson - tells the ANZAC Day tale (out 1 March).
Jackie regaled us with her glorious take on reading - from ancient hieroglyphics through to iPads, it was enchanting to listen to her historical account and her own experiences and beliefs on reading and its occasional (more occasional that not, alas) challenges.
Congratulations to the local NYR12 team and Dickson Library on a really fabulous community event. It was a joy to be part of it. Thanks to Sarah for taking the photos of my reading, and to Jaz, Rachel, Eleanor and all the team for providing yet another celebration to celebrate reading.
3 comments:
Fantastic, i love Jackie French, what a lady. You're such an amazon, crouching down.
Looking fabulous & engaging as always, congratulations. The cake looked delicious, so sorry i wasn't avaiable at the last minute, bummer, i was thinking of you & heard all about it on the radio, Ambassador Tania!! Love Posie
It was a lovely event, I agree! The children were very excited about the cake, which was gorgeous. It was great to see you Tania and many thanks to the wonderful staff and patrons of Dickson Library. It was a real privilege to hear from Jackie and her exciting new work.
It was lovely to talk with you Tania, and to find out more about your books. Best of luck for the March releases. Jess (friend of Jen L).
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