May 22, 2014
At 11:00am on Wednesday, school students all over Australia paused to read a book … all about elephants.
At Kingaroy State School, about 80 students gathered in the school library for the National Simultaneous Storytime event … but they weren’t the only ones in the South Burnett going through the exercise.
State and private schools, kindies, daycares and many of the Council libraries also joined in the simultaneous elephant fun.
So what’s so big about elephants?
It’s all because they feature in the children’s book “Too Many Elephants In This House” by Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky.
As the clock approached 11:00am, the Kingaroy students counted down, and then the reading began.
National Simultaneous Storytime is an annual campaign organised by the Australian Library and Information Association to encourage more young Australians to read and enjoy books.
It has been running for 14 years and Kingaroy State School teacher / librarian Julie Boyle said it was always a popular event at Kingaroy State School.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring kids together who love stories, who love books,” she said.
After the book reading finished, the Kingaroy students had fun with several elephant-themed activities in the library.
