Picture Story Books

Our library is a beautiful learning and relaxing space, where students come along to extend their love of reading, share books with their friends, borrow and return books they're interested in, grow their knowledge, feed their passions and learn about life - both imaginary and factual - through reading.

We are very proud of the wide variety of books we have in this lovely space. Did you know that we are always extending our collection? Our Librarian May is constantly on the look-out for recommendations of great books that we can add to our bookshelves, so if you know of any please get in touch!

Did you know that we have a great collection of Non-English language picture-story books? 

One of our past Assistant Principals, Robyn English, is the editor of Practical Primary and is currently writing an article  based on our school's collection of Non- English books. Robyn is passionate about good quality literature and would like to share your and your children's experiences of these books with the wider education community. It was Robyn who saw the lack of this type of reading material in our library and so established our collection of Non- English books. 

We know that many students still borrow them and that new books are added when they become available. Robyn has contacted us recently in the hopes that you would submit your responses to her questions. You'll find these at the bottom of her explanation below:-

Dear Parents and Carers

I was very pleased to hear that the Non-English collection of picture story books is still an active feature of the Boroondara Park Primary School library. When this collection was established, the intention was to provide high quality reading material in languages spoken by school families. We hoped that this would be a tangible way we could celebrate our cultural diversity and provide meaningful ways that students could retain connections with their mother tongue, encouraging multi-generational enjoyment of literature. I have been asked to write about this project for a teaching journal and invite you to share your experiences with the collection. I invite you to share your first hand experiences with me for this article. You might like to respond to the following questions or just write a brief overview of your experiences. What motivates your child to borrow books from the Non-English collection?How does your family share these books? For example, are they read only by the child, read as a family group, read by adults who speak the language?How do you feel about the school having this collection? Any comments you would like to sent on to me would be hugely appreciated. I have a very short deadline so comments sent before Monday 16th October would be wonderful.

Your responses can be sent directly to Robyn at her email address. Only first names are used in these articles, but if you would rather use a pseudonym please let her know. Her email address is Robyn.English@education.vic.gov.au

And don't forget, if you haven't already seen this collection of books, please come along and have a look. They can be found opposite the library desk, alongside another wonderful collection, our Indigenous language stories. Have a browse! 

by Cat Fleming

(Literacy Learning Specialist)