e. Book week in Australia

My seven year old son, Ollie, went to school today dressed as a knight.

He wore a red shirt, grey pants, brown boots, a chain mail coat of armor, a chain mail hood, and he carried a sword. He also wore a huge smile on his face.

Arriving at school, he strode across the oval to his classroom passing, along the way, many other children dressed as fictional characters: There were numerous Harry Potters, Sleeping Beauties, Cinderellas, Robin Hoods, princesses, wizards ... and, the most popular with the children, numerous Minecraft Steves.

The reason for the unusual school-wear?  Well, it’s not Halloween or some bizarre school-uniform experiment. It’s Book Week in Australia. And the children get to go to school, for one day during this week, dressed as a character from their favourite book. Well, theoretically it’s from their ‘favourite’ book - but realistically it’s whatever is easiest for their mum’s to prepare.

For this reason, I’m not surprised that Minecraft Steve was so popular.  He’s the central character in the computer game, Minecraft, (yes, technically that’s not a ‘book’ character but the kids love him, so, Oh well!).

 All that’s required to look like Minecraft Steve is to wear: a pair of navy trousers, a sky-blue tee-shirt, and a square box on one’s head. You see the Minecraft characters are all ‘box-y’. So the head-box can have a face and hair painted on it with eye-holes cut out and … voila! … You’re Minecraft Steve. Easy! Or relatively easy compared to the complexities and expense of making costumes for other book characters.

Book Week has been celebrated for 71 years now.  It was started by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) - which was established in 1945.  The CBCA is a not-for-profit, volunteer run organisation which aims to celebrate Australian Literature for children and young people.

Even when I was a child - many many … many moons ago (when stories were still being written on animal skins) - my school celebrated book week.

Although, when I was a child I never felt a part of the ‘celebration of books’.  You see I never actually bothered to read them. Not unless I was absolutely forced to by a teacher with the threat of a ‘fail’ grade. I was, back then, a television addict. I thought of books in the same way as I thought about medicine, vegetables, or maths lessons: Yuck! Books, for me, were dull, dreary, and unpleasant. They were to be endured only by force. And, even then, they were to be rushed through the way one would like to have any noxious situation dealt with - finished and over with as quickly as possible.

My mother was an avid reader.  Although, she started to read as a child during the 1930’s and 1940’s when there was little else to entertain oneself with on a rainy day. There were radios but no televisions. So, I presume reading books was easier back then.  The alternatives were few and there were less distractions. (Today with computers and so many other forms of entertainment, I think it’s even easier for children to avoid reading).

My mother tried to encourage me to read during my childhood in the 1970’s and 1980’s. She read me fairy-tales and children’s novels at bedtime. She even made up the most wonderful stories of her own to tell me when she washed my hair, or when I helped her to dry the dishes after tea. However, I still refused to ‘read’ books. Although I did developed a love of stories. It’s just that it was so much easier to ‘watch’ stories on television. 

My Primary-school report cards made the comment: ‘Robyn has no interest in reading.’ That was no surprise to anyone at home. My nickname was ‘square-eyes’ (because I was always watching the ‘square’ television set).


At High-school my Year 10 English teacher saw some sort of ‘potential’ in my writing.  She even said something, early in the year, about me helping her to mark the English papers for the rest of the class. However, I felt like a fraud when she said this. I knew that it wouldn’t take long for her to discover how truly inept I was with words. Needless to say, I never helped her to mark a single thing. I felt bad that I had disappointed her.

My mother often edited my essays and prose, at that time, and she would say to me, ‘Robyn, you’re not trying! You’ve written a whole page here and I don’t see a single full stop. Commas everywhere. Dashes everywhere.  Just no full stops.’  Sadly, I was trying really hard. 

Creative stories and interesting ideas would come to me all the time.  But there was an impenetrable barrier between me and the paper. I couldn’t put my thoughts into words to put on the page. And once my words were on the page - I had no idea about grammar.

So, I gave up on writing just as I’d given up on reading.

Instead, I turned to the science subjects at school. I dropped out of English, in year 11, and pursued only the Science subjects from that time:  Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Economics. And, even in those subjects, I wrote no sentences. Just words with diagrams and graphs. I didn’t even use a pen. I wrote everything in pencil - as was the practice in Maths. 

I studied Medicine after I finished High-school and, once again, I avoided any form of writing.  All answers were written in bullet point form and I threw graphs around wherever I could fit them.

In my leisure I watched television.

Then, at the age of 21 - in my 5th year of medicine, I met my future husband, David.

David loved books.  He bought me books as gifts.  Not Literature or complex novels with numerous dark characters and complex themes and five-syllable words which required a dictionary to finish each page.  But, to start with, he bought me funny novels. In fact, the first book he ever bought me was ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. Not the sort of book I would have read in school. Not a book my mother would have known about. But I loved it! It was so funny and engaging and creative!

David then bought me the rest of the books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series. More books as gifts followed these and, eventually, he had me reading the great classic novels:  Thomas Hardy, The Bronte sisters, D.H Lawrence … and so many others.

I would sit at work, if I got any spare time, reading these novels.  Gradually, I watched less television because I wanted to finish my books.

I was never driven with a stick to read. Instead, I was inspired to love reading. And, like all forms of learning, to inspire a student with a love of an activity is much more effective and enduring than to drive them to do it with punishment.

These days my favourite genre is ‘non-fiction’ - probably because I’ve done so much study over the years and I’ve read a lot more non-fiction than fiction.

Interestingly, I rarely watch television in my leisure time these days. I mostly read. I particularly love words:  Their sound, their power, the interesting way you can style them. And, with reading, the impenetrable barrier between my thoughts and the page has gone.

So, this Book Week I have celebrated books along with my children, the schools, and the community in Australia.

On the weekend, I attended the annual Salisbury Writer’s Festival (which is a part of Book Week). It’s the third year I’ve gone. And, it’s a two hour round trip to get there. Six hours of driving over the weekend - sandwiched between work on Friday and Monday. The housework crammed in around it. But it was great fun!

The authors speaking at it this year were Stephen Orr and Mark Dapin.  They were both really interesting, entertaining and eloquent.  Clearly they have mastered the craft of writing and the use of words.

And, this afternoon when I picked Ollie up from the Book Week ‘dressing-up’ day at school, I found him swinging from a Monkey Bar in the playground - still dressed as a knight and carrying his sword. He ran breathless to my car and, as we drove home, he told me all about his wonderful day.

‘I got to stand up in front of the class and talk about my favourite book,’ he said.  ‘I told them I don’t have a favourite book ‘cause I love so many! And my teacher read the book I brought from home.  She’s a nice teacher.  She uses her ‘inside voice’ when she talks.’ (I presume an ‘outside’ voice is yelling or using a loud angry tone).

He then laughed and added, ‘She smiled at me, Mum. She asked me to stand in front of all the Princesses for a photo.  I had to hold my sword up like I was protecting them all.’

‘So, you like book week, Ollie?’ I asked.

‘Yes!  And I love reading, Mum!’

I’m glad he’s found a love of books and reading so early in his life.  My other children have too.  And, it shows in their writing and the ease with which they can express themselves.

I hope that with Book Week, and other similar events, children of today become inspired to love books.

Computers can sap the time and imaginations of children the way television did for me when I was young.  Finding a balance between reading and other forms of electronic entertainment is probably the key. Moderation and balance. Like in other areas of a happy and healthy life.

And it’s never too late. The inspiration to love books and reading can come at any time and any age.  And, from there, the joy of words will reward you for the rest of your days.