The Hook into Books™ campaign celebrated its fourth year of inspiring a love for reading and storytelling.
Image: A collage of children reading books.
Hook into Books™, now in its 4th year, is an annual campaign led by the Learning Without Barriers team promoting the joys of reading and storytelling.
At its heart, Hook into Books™ is a celebration of children's literature, founded on the idea that engaging children of any age in reading is one of the most powerful things we can do to support their language, literacy, and learning.
Together with some of Australian's most notable children's authors and supporters, Hook into Books™ provides opportunities for children and young people to play, experiment, and share experiences that lead them to their personal key to unlock the door to the literacy world.
Now that the Hook into Books™ 2024 campaign has drawn to a close - let’s look back on all the fun that was had!
Launch Webinar
We launched the campaign in August with a virtual webinar titled, 'Creating conditions for change: engendering a love of reading with children and young people.'
The webinar centred on the idea that all children deserve to have access to a wide range of books and supports to enhance their literacy skills and develop a lifelong love of reading.
We were joined by three prominent Australian Authors, Aunty Fay Muir, Senior Boon Wurrung and Wamba Wamba Elder, First Nations Community Leader, and Koori Court Elder, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, Artist, and descendant of the Bundjalung people, and Kate Foster, Author, Diversity Advocate, and creator of the ASLA Diversity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Children's Book Awards.
This insightful conversation showcased a range of interesting perspectives including the importance of exposure to first languages, connection to culture and Country, visual storytelling, and representations in literacy development.
Image: A collage with three images of Aunty Fay Muir, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, and Kate Foster.
Book Backpacks
A central activity to the Hook into Books™ campaign is gifting young people books through our Book Backpacks. With 1500 requests for a backpack this year (1000 more than last year), the task of sourcing books and backpacks, and the logistics of sorting and packing, were amplified. With the support of many of our partners, we gathered books, backpacks, and other literacy resources to fill each request.
"My child was very excited when he came home to find his book backpack at the front door. He couldn't wait to open it and wanted to read all the books with me straight away. We've been enjoying them over and over since," shared one foster carer.
Image: Two young people with backpacks on, facing away from the camera.
The Two Good Co generously donated 750 backpacks, teddy bears, and lunch boxes. We also received over 2000 books from the Children's Book Council of Australia (Queensland Branch), Queensland University Press, Walker Books, EK Books for Kids, and Wildflowers and Reading Hours.
A further 2000 books were purchased through discounted partnerships with Indigenous Publishing House Magabala Books, and Dymocks Children's Charities, Children's Rights Queensland, and the Pyjama Foundation also contributed additional resources for each backpack.
Through our partnership with Children's Rights Queensland, Hook into Books™ was also able to promote children's rights by distributing Children's Rights Books in the Book Backpacks.
"It has been so inspiring to see that staff and carers are reading these books with children and engaging them in discussions about their rights!" said Angela Bear.
Image: Megan and Angela with Dan Marais, President of Children’s Rights Queensland, at the launch of Children’s Week.
In August, we hosted a major packing day and were joined by 10 volunteer staff from Charter Hall. We were lucky to have Melita Caffery, Head of Safety and Wellbeing, and Scott Mansell, Injury Management Advisor on hand to encourage us to get our bodies moving, stretching and warming us up for the massive task of packing 1500 backpacks.
Life Without Barriers' National Immigration Support Services (NISS) also hosted local packing days, tailoring their packs to each child in NISS and hand-delivering the books during their home visits. Through this partnership, almost 230 children and young people received a Book Backpack during the campaign.
"The book pack was filled with quality surprises that suited the age group. It made him feel special and the items will be treasured for a long time," a staff member shared.
The Queensland Disability team also donated a beautiful package of books to the campaign.
"Our Queensland Disability program loves this initiative and wanted to do something to support and celebrate," said Rebecca Hubball, Director of Queensland Disability and Mental Health.
Image: A participant and a staff member reading a book together.
Book Boxes
2024 saw the introduction of the office Book Box. Each Book Box serves as a conversation starter, featuring a range of literature across genres and a literacy conversation card. From verse books, non-fiction titles, young adult fiction, emerging readers, and children's picture books, the Book Boxes shared our love of literature across Life Without Barriers and encouraged conversation about books and reading.
"The whole office was impressed with the gift of great resources for our young people," said Keryn Smith, Education Officer - Liaison and Mediation, CYF, Tasmania.
"It is great to see a focus on encouraging education and reading, an integral part of a young person’s development."
Image: A Book Box sitting open on a table, filled with books and conversation cards.
Catch-a-Reader and Indigenous Literacy Day
The ‘Catch-a-Reader’activity is based on the knowledge that modelling behaviour for children has long-lasting effects - it is how they learn! This photo sharing activity presented an opportunity to model and have a little fun at the same time, by being 'caught' reading!
This year, we embraced the importance of First Nations stories and books, by combining the activity with Indigenous Literacy Day, under the theme of 'Be A Proud Voice for Country'. Children, young people, carers and staff were encouraged to catch readers engaged in the many beautiful books written and illustrated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators.
Reading Challenge
The Reading Adventure Challenge encouraged children and young people to experience reading and stories in lots of fun ways. From reading your cereal box in the morning, through to telling someone about a book you've read or hope to read one day, the challenge highlighted that there are a variety of ways to get involved in ‘reading’, with all entries receiving a book prize in the mail!
Image: Two people at Fenner Conveyors' Tee Off For Community Golf Day, holding books over their faces.
"The gift of books tells our children, you matter, you are loved, believe in yourself," said a Life Without Barriers foster carer.
Thank you to all who engaged with Hook into Books™ ! This campaign holds a special place in hearts and minds of the Life Without Barriers community, and we can't wait for Hook into Books™ to return in 2025.
