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Melville Children Show Passion for Books
Melville children are showing a strong passion for books with participation in Children’s Book Week 2010 (August 21 to 27) at an all time high.
The City of Melville-run activities to celebrate Children’s Book Week attracted record attendance numbers, making it one of the highest participating local governments in WA.
Mayor Russell Aubrey, who presented 13 prizes to students and schools in the word search competition last week (Friday, 10 September), said he was excited to see so many young Melville residents with an enthusiasm for books.
“Children’s Book Week is a fantastic opportunity to help boost children’s literacy and learning – reading and writing is the single most important factor to success in school and later life, which is why the City supports this week so enthusiastically,” he said.
“This year, 5025 children and 920 adults attended 119 City of Melville Children’s Book Week sessions which ran over two weeks, and we received more than 1,400 entries to our major ‘word search’ competition, from 28 different schools.”
Two winners of the word search competition were Sophie May from Bicton Primary School who won a prize in the 5 to 8 year old category, and Beatriz Ortega from Mel Maria Catholic Primary School who won a prize in the 9 to 12 year old category.
St Benedicts Primary School in Ardross took out the prize for the highest percentage of entries in the competition – almost 68 per cent of the School’s students took part.
Free community activities held by the City of Melville from 21 August to 3 September included live performances of Rumpelstiltskin, a meet the author session with Michael Wagner (Maxx Rumble Football and Cricket series), meet the illustrator sessions with WA’s Mark Greenwood, Frane Lessac, Wendy Binks, David Caddy, Mark and Joy Lefroy, and stories told by Robyn Bett, Glen Swift and Deborah Hathway.
As well as support from schools and parents, the City has received Children’s Book Week support from Dymocks Garden City for many years, and joining this year, Hoyts Cinemas.
For more than 60 years, Children’s Book Week has been celebrated by Australian libraries and schools to highlight the importance of reading.