Introducing the Picture Book Book Club!

Who doesn’t love picture books? Their cleverly crafted words and beautiful illustrations are appealing to the young and the not-so-young and as library professionals, we also know how important picture books are to the development and literacy of children.

When a young librarian named Nicola McGeown founded the Picture Book Book Club her goal was to connect picture book lovers and celebrate the awesomeness of picture books! Nicola assembled a team of picture book lovers - Ashleigh McKergow, Rob Allen and I - and together we are bringing the book club to life.

Whether you work in a school library, public library, or you just love picture books, this will be a great professional development activity for anyone who works in a library or educational environment.

Picture Book Book Club Daylight Saving Twitter chat times: AEST QLD: 8pm; AEDT NSW VIC TAS ACT: 9pm; ACST NT: 7:30pm; ACDT SA: 8:30pm; AWST WA: 6pm; NZDT NZ: 11pm

So how does the Picture Book Book Club work?

The first Thursday of every month is Picture Book party time! At 8pm (AEST) picture book lovers will gather for a facilitated Twitter chat around a different theme every month that includes a guest author, illustrator or awesome person. The Picture Book Book Club team will lead you through a series of questions designed to explore the theme and discuss the awesomeness of picture books! We will also feature blog posts from our guests so stay tuned to our blog throughout the month! And if that isn’t enough, the Instagram and Twitter accounts will be highlighting picture books and picture book news. It’s basically a 24/7 picture book party!

How can you join the Picture Book party?

The first Picture Book Book Club chat was on Thursday 2nd March and the theme was ‘Aussie’ picture books. We were super lucky to have the ultra-talented Damon Young join us to discuss picture book awesomeness. You can read all about the first chat in the March Wrap-Up!

Don’t let being a chat newbie stop you from following along and joining in, everyone was a beginner once and what better way to learn than with a group of people who love picture books? I look forward to seeing you at the next chat and don’t forget to invite your friends!

Follow @picturebookbc on Instagram and Twitter and make sure you check out the website!

Amy Walduck
@amywalduck
Queensland State Manager ALIA