Reading is Magic – Book Month Celebrations!

Mad Hatters, witches, superheroes and villains, rainbow fish, Potters, knights and Grandma Poss were just some of the magical characters that visited us on our dress up day to celebrate Book Month at Box Hill High School.

Our annual morning tea had a Mad Hatter theme and an overwhelming number of students got an invite for either; regularly using the library to read and recommend books, participating in the daily word and math puzzles, contributing to the daily running of the library as a Library or Chess Leader, being a CBCA Shadow Judge or being a regular attendee of Brekkie and a Book. We had to run two separate sittings where junior students were invited at recess and senior students were invited at lunchtime. In total, over 150 students filled the library throughout the day to celebrate and share their love of books and congratulate our top borrowers, top readers and our top library helpers and supporters.

Smiles and laughter filled the space while our top readers from each year level were awarded $50 gift vouchers kindly donated by Campion Books and those who came a close second received a new book each. The festival vibe created by these passionate bibliophiles as they clapped, cheered, and ate cupcakes was contagious and everyone who came went into the draw for our lucky door prizes.

A massive thank you to the tireless work of our Library and Chess Leaders, Library Patrons and CBCA Shadow Judges. These students dedicate their time to help in the library, bring energy and fun to the space, share their love of reading and we love the ideas and the enthusiasm that they bring.

Write a Book in a Day

173 students from Year 7 through to Year 12 took part in the 2024 Write a Book in a Day event. This equates to 25 teams, and 25 books, all between 3500-5000 words that were created, illustrated and published and, amazingly over $2500 was raised for the Kids Cancer Project.

Students worked in teams of between 5 and 10 for over 12 hours to create these fabulous stories where they developed their teamwork, communication, time management and creativity skills. And despite the intense pressure of the day, students left buzzing and exceptionally proud of what they had achieved.

Due to the big uptake this year, this event was run over 3 days, and we send a big thank you to the staff who signed up to support students and help ensure that this event could run. After all 3 days were completed, all students were called back to the hall and presented with a certificate of participation, a copy of their book and a zooper dooper. All books are available in our school library and were uploaded to the Kids Cancer Project website where they are published digitally and available to kids in hospitals around Australia.

A huge congratulations to all those involved. We hope that all those who signed up are as proud of their achievements as we are of them.

Children’s Book Council Awards (CBCA) Shadow Judges

We also celebrated the students who volunteered to be Shadow Judges this year. These students signed up to read and meet regularly to chat about the 6 books that were nominated in the older readers category and the 6 books nominated for the younger readers category. Using the official judging criteria, students met to chat about how the books met each of the criteria before deciding which book they believed should be crowned Book of the Year. If you have not yet checked out the winners, we loved the judges' decisions this year.

In the Older Readers category, the official winner was Grace Notes by Karen Comer and the Shadow Judges winner (these are the student judges from across the country) was Inkflower by Suzy Zail. As a group these were our two favourites, so we were pleased when both of our favourite books got the accolades they deserved.

Author Visit – Angela Crawford

We were so lucky to have Ange Crawford, a queer writer and editor, and a PhD candidate in media and communication at RMIT in Melbourne, studying spatial writing, come into school to run a creative writing workshop. The 40 students who attended were captivated by Ange’s presentation and writing workshop and we are so grateful to Ange for staying to answer each question and sign autographs for each student. Her advice on how to start the creative writing process, how to combat writers block and how to source inspiration and creativity was fabulous and we will be sure to get Ange back when her debut young adult novel, How to Be Normal, the book that won the inaugural Walker Books Manuscript Prize, comes out at the end of this year.

And finally, a massive thank you to everyone who comes into the library space and makes it the fabulous place that it is. This month we got to put our fabulous readers and library patrons front and centre and reinforce why reading and the power of stories not only supports our academic studies but also, promotes creativity and just to be, all round better humans.

Keep Reading !

Baby Beanies

We are still collecting baby beanies for both St John of God Hospital and now the Royal Children’s Hospital. A massive thank you to the community who are continuing to drop off these beautiful beanies to the front office. Please know they are going to where they need to go 😊

And lastly, the 2025 Book Week theme is Book an Adventure! It is so exciting to have a year to plan and dream about costume ideas for the next dress up day!

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