LIBRARY NEWS

Welcome to the final library newsletter for this term! Where has the time gone? It's been a busy few months, with students making a fantastic start to the year and enjoying reading many great stories.

Thank you to Mrs. Monica Durmisevic for stepping in and taking excellent care of the library during my leave these past two weeks. She had a wonderful time and was warmly welcomed by all the students – it was a relief knowing the library was in such safe hands.

This Week’s Reads

This week, the talk around the school is all about Easter, and we've got some egg-cellent new additions to the library to celebrate! Our students have been hopping into five brand-new Easter picture books, and one has already emerged as a clear favourite: Bluey Easter. This fun story follows Bluey and Bingo on a clue-filled Easter egg hunt that takes them on an indoor and outdoor adventure – even to the infamous (and apparently well-known!) dangers of Dad's toilet! Ultimately, their clever detective work leads them to a delicious collection of Easter eggs. Once again, this story proves that Bluey is a popular choice for students of all ages.

Yesterday, KM came for their lesson, and after being away for a couple of weeks, I was reminded of how far they’ve come this term. They’re confident with library routines and expectations, knowing how to return their books to the correct place (it sounds easy, but books can often end up anywhere!) and regularly borrow. They can identify parts of a book: front & back covers, pages, spine, blurb, title, and tell me what an author and illustrator do. What a great start to the year!

Stages 1 and 2 have spent the term exploring ‘Awesome Aussie Authors’ and are choosing their favourite author and story read in Term 1 this week. Yesterday, 1M overwhelmingly chose Lyrebird by Laura and Philip Bunting as their favourite story, while it was a mixed bag for Stage 2. 3M and 4WL chose Leigh Hobbs as their top Aussie author, while 3S picked Shaun Tan and 4L, the amazing Mem Fox (one of my favourites!).

Years 5 and 6 have also been busy exploring genres and are completing a survey this week to decide the most popular genres for Stage 3 students. Yesterday, 5F had two equal favourites - spooky/horror and mysteries. I look forward to discovering what the other classes have enjoyed too.

While I was away, Stage 3 recreated the cover of their favourite book in a series. Here are just a few of 5F’s finished products. I’ll share more of these next term.

Books for the Holidays - SORA

Even though the library may be closed for the holidays, that doesn’t mean your child needs to stop borrowing books. All primary and secondary students can access the Diocese’s online digital library (SORA) to read magazines, e-books, or audiobooks.

To access SORA, you can download the App or access the website here. Your child will need their school username and password, which is available from their classroom teacher (I don’t have access to these).

Instructions on how to log in to SORA can be found here.

SORA also has collections of books for the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge, making it easy for students to find eligible titles. To access these books:

Select the ‘Explore’ button, then ‘Collections’ and scroll down until you see ‘NSW PRC’ .

K-2 - 198 ebooks and 23 audiobooks (K-2 students can count books read to them)

Years 3-4 - 409 ebooks

Year 5-6 - 969 ebooks

Year 7-9 - 1468 ebooks

There’s a lot to choose from!

CBCA Books of the Year Shortlist

Each year, the Children’s Book Council of Australia holds their Books of the Year Awards, which run with Book Week across Australia in August. These awards acknowledge the very best of Australian literature released over the last twelve months across six categories, including:

Older readers
Younger readers
Early Childhood
Picture Book
New Illustrator
Eve Pownall Award (non-fiction books)

The 2025 shortlist was announced recently, and I will preview each category next term. If you want more information about these excellent books, you can read about them here.

PRC Update - New Closing Date

It’s not too late to join the Premier’s Reading Challenge, especially now that the closing date has been extended to Friday, 19 September 2025 (Week 9, Term 3)! To begin, you need to return a permission note that’s available from the library or here.

PRC booklists for each year group are available on the PRC website or in the library. Remember to look on SORA, too!

Students as Authors Competition

Don’t forget to enter the CSO’s Students as Authors competition by writing a story guaranteed to bring smiles, giggles, chuckles, or outright laughter, with entries closing on Friday, 30th May – see the poster for all the details!

Meet the Readers

Alex from KM couldn’t get enough of Bluey Easter yesterday, so he borrowed two more to enjoy. Meet Kobe from Year 7, who has enjoyed telling me for years that he doesn’t like to read, so I ordered him a book about something he loves: motorbikes!

I hope you have a happy, relaxing and safe holiday. See you in Term 2!

Happy reading,

Mrs Toni Fraser