J.K Rowling once said, “I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.” And if ever there was magic at Kolbe, it was during our Book Week celebrations in Week 6! From 19 to 23 August, Kolbe Catholic College immersed itself into the world of literature to commemorate the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) 79th Book Week.
Established in 1945, the CBCA Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in Australia that revolves around the celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading. This year’s Book Week theme was “Reading is Magic” and we explored the theme by transforming the Walsh Learning Centre into a magical Neverland complete with Captain Hook’s pirate ship, Peter and the lost boys’ hideout, Mermaid Lagoon, and Pixie Hollow. We had a buzz in the air throughout the week as our staff and students participated in a range of fun and exciting activities including visiting author incursions, daily quizzes, a scavenger hunt, bade-making, morning tea, and our penultimate event…Friday Dress Up.
Our week started with a visit from picture book author and illustrator, Gabriel Evans. Speaking with our Year 10 students, Gabriel shared his personal process for creating picture books from character design to developing ideas. The students participated in a love-illustration demonstration and gained insight into visual literacy tools used when creating picture books. This was followed by a visit from graphic novelist Justin Randall who returned to Kolbe for a second year to run workshops with our Year 11 General English students about the language of comics using commonly used visual tropes. The students enjoyed hearing about Justin’s unique drawing style and even had a go at creating some hand-drawn characters. The week finished with a special visit from Perth magician, Magic Dale, where our Year 7s and 8s were treated with a spectacular show of illusion and sleight-of-hand, even getting the chance to learn some of the magician’s deepest secrets of the trade.
There is no doubt that the peak of our Book Week celebrations was our Friday Dress Up Day. To say that our staff and students filled the brief of “dress as your favourite book character”, would be an understatement. Approximately 500 students and 100 staff members accepted the challenge and came to school dressed in all manner of costumes; from Paddington Bear, Peter Pan, Ghostbusters, Elsa, Harry Potter, elves, unicorns, the Wiggles, Where’s Wally, ninjas and knights, Wednesday Adams, fairies…there was magic in every classroom.
I would like to extend a thank you to the Walsh Learning Team for making Book Week so wonderful, and a special thank you to Anette Cronin and Nicole Swan from the Walsh Learning Centre Team, who were instrumental in decorating our Walsh Learning Centre into a magical Neverland and facilitating many of the week’s events.
We cannot wait to see where the Kolbe Book Week tradition goes in the future. But until then, pick up a book because “…the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr Seuss.
