Give the Gift of Reading with The Reading Hour

The Reading Hour is coming up with the simple message: ‘Share a book for 10 minutes a day, an hour a week, and give the gift of reading’. Hundreds of Reading Hour celebrations will take place during August in libraries, schools, businesses and homes across the country!

To celebrate The Reading Hour, Goldfields Libraries will have special Family Book Bundles available for the week of Monday 15 – Saturday 20 August. Designed for ages 0-7, the Book Bundles are free, and enable families to share a love of reading together.

Older children and adults are encouraged to borrow books from the library or eLibrary, with over 300,000 items to choose from. Membership is free, and items can be reserved online via www.ncgrl.vic.gov.au

The Reading Hour emerged from the National Year of Reading 2012, and is an ongoing campaign from Love2Read, funded by the ALIA Australian Public Library Alliance and in partnership with the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund. Responding to research highlighting Australia’s critically low literacy rates and the increased social and economic opportunities for children that are read to from an early age, The Reading Hour initiative reminds parents, caregivers and families that reading together doesn’t have to be a massive undertaking in their increasingly busy lives. Rather, it encourages the ‘anytime, anywhere’ mantra, building a foundation in society whereby reading is a gift, given freely.

Magda Szubanski, one of Australia’s most loved TV personalities, is the National Reading Hour Ambassador for 2016. Magda has a background in comedy, appearing on several sketch shows including Kath & Kim as Sharon Strzelecki. Her first book Reckoning recently won the Indie Award for Non-Fiction, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and both Biography and Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards!

Although the official Reading Hour is held nationwide on Tuesday 16 August, the joy of reading can be celebrated anytime, anywhere. Anytime is reading time!

Driven by Australian libraries, Love2Read raises the status and visibility of reading and literacy nationwide, promotes the benefits of reading and storytelling as critical life skills and catalysts for wellbeing, and unifies the national literacy network working toward Australia becoming a nation of readers.

For more information on The Reading Hour, visit: www.readinghour.org.au and for more information on Goldfields Libraries visit: www.ncgrl.vic.gov.au