St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School Special Assembly to Mark the 70th Anniversary of Children’s Book Week

Thank you for the very warm welcome – I am delighted to be with you to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of Children’s Book Week.

What a wonderful week this has been for books and reading. There were more than four hundred books considered for the ‘Book of the Year’ title, and the list of Notables will, as always, be an invaluable guide for parents and librarians for the year ahead.

I have a special interest in Book Week. My wife, Kaye, as some of you may already know, is a former librarian, and indeed we actually met for the first time because of books — Kaye was working in the Law School library at The University of Queensland when I was a law student more than forty-five years ago.

That’s an unimaginable span of years for the students here today, but my hope is that you will all discover, as we have done, that books are friends for life and reading is a wonderful habit that never ceases to expand your horizons and enrich your experience.

I am also the Patron of the Children’s Book Council of Australia here in Queensland. They organise Book Week, and consistently, the Council encourages all children to develop a love of reading.

I know that, this year, St Peter Chanel students have enjoyed the great pleasure of working with the Australian Children’s Laureate, Leigh Hobbs, as your Author-in Residence.

I am enormously impressed that, as a result of that experience, and the hard work of your Teacher Librarian, Mrs Cavanagh, the School has produced a wonderful storybookin response to the Book Week theme: ‘Australia: Story Country’.

I made the mistake of reading ‘Dragonworld’ one night last week: I didn’t sleep very well that night – notwithstanding the happy ending! And I’m relieved the “Cheeky-23” have not yet invaded Government House. Congratulations, girls and boys, on producing such imaginative “stories” (I assume they are fictional) and equally fantastic drawings.

This has been a land of story-tellers for thousands of years, from the time of the Dreaming, and I am proud to see that tradition being continued by this new generation.

As Governor, it now gives me great pleasure to officially launch Our Crazy Community and, on behalf of all Queenslanders, to congratulate the entire school community on this achievement.

Thank you.