Celebrate Australian Reading Hour on Tuesday 14 September

What will you be doing on Tuesday, September 14? Caring for children? Working? Grocery shopping? Never ending loads of laundry? 

What if you seized an hour out of your day to read a book, or share a story with your family? 

Australian Reading Hour is a nation-wide event that encourages you to stop what you’re doing for one hour and pick up a book to read. This year, it will be held on September 14 and the goal is to get as many Australians reading as possible! Let’s celebrate the stories that matter and explore the role of storytelling in transforming lives and shaping our sense of identity, belonging and understanding – as individuals and as a nation. 

Reading has all types of wonderful benefits for our mental wellbeing. Did you know that: 

• Sharing stories daily with your little ones can significantly help their language and literacy development when they start school. 

• Reading for pleasure is one of the most important indicators of a child’s future success.  

• Children who see adults reading for pleasure are more likely to want to read themselves. 

• Fiction readers often have a heightened sense of empathy and can be better at predicting what other people are thinking and feeling.

If your little one is itching to read new books you can check out the First 5 Forever website and download the Stories for Little Queenslanders, a series of 12 children’s picture books featuring Queensland locations, authors and illustrators that have local connections. You can even view the stories being read as there’s a video for each one.  

To explore more great picture books and expand your child’s horizon, visit your local library today.  

Check out our First 5 Forever Facebook page to follow our countdown to Australian Reading Hour.  

We’d love you to share your stories in the comments box below. Tell us about the way reading helps you and your little ones enjoy, learn, grow and connect.