Children’s Book Week may not officially start until August 22, but celebrations are well and truly under way at Campaspe Library branches across the shire.

The week is a celebration of children’s literature, reading and authors, created by the Children’s Book Council of Australia to help foster a lifelong love of reading.

The council begins the week by announcing the winners of its Book of the Year Awards, with 30 books listed across six categories.

From school and kindergarten visits to family storytime and much more, Campaspe Library services co-ordinator Jenny Mustey said CBW was a great time to highlight and celebrate Australian children’s literature.

“We celebrate it throughout the month because one week isn’t quite enough,” Ms Mustey said.

“It’s a long-standing award, (CBW) has been going for 80 years, so it’s really important to continue to celebrate that and really highlight what is available and the great books that are coming out all the time.”

This year’s CBW theme is Symphony of Stories, and it has already proven popular.

“I think (its) theme is fantastic because it’s all about characters,” Ms Mustey said.

“It’s really focusing on all the different characters, whether they’re people or animals or whatever they might be.”

Ms Mustey and her team have used the theme’s focus on characters as an inspiration for the library’s arts and crafts events, something set to continue throughout the month.

Each CBW, the CBCA also releases a themed poster, with this year’s edition illustrated by children’s author illustrator Briony Stewart.

“This week is so important because books are so important,” Ms Stewart said.

“I think we frequently look and worry about children and literacy without thinking and worrying about literature.

“We have such amazing creators in Australia and such amazing stories.

“If we can support children to finding their way to those stories and towards literature, then I think literacy starts to improve naturally as a result.”

Information about some of the CBW events can be found below.

To find out more, visit tinyurl.com/yd3dawcb, where events will be highlighted during the celebrations.

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