Visual Arts 

ART ROOM NEWS

The theme for this year’s BookWeek is Curious Creatures, Curious Minds. A perfect match for the children who show us their curious minds every day.

The Children’s Book Council of Australia has been celebrating BookWeek since 1946. The awards were established to promote children’s books of high literary and artistic quality. Each year across Australia the CBCA brings children and books together to highlight and celebrate the excellence of books published during that year by Australian authors, illustrators and publishers. 

Here in the art room at St James we often use picture books as an inspiration for our art making. And at this time of the year we will be focusing on some of  the 6 Shortlisted books from the Early Childhood category and the Picture Book category. 

The first art that most children see is in picture books. Good quality books inspire and challenge children’s developing visual literacy. Before they read words, children are reading pictures. It is through the book’s images that a child first understands the world of story. Where the story is set, when it takes place, whether it’s new or familiar. They read the character’s emotions and interactions in facial expressions and body language.

Reading a picture book is a bit like watching a movie. In a movie the spoken words and visual film tell the story together. In a picture book the text and illustrations work together to tell the story.

I was privileged to be a CBCA Judge for the Early Childhood picture books in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Each year many parcels of books would arrive and the process of judging would begin. It was always a hard task to shortlist down to 6 books. If you are interested in finding what books that have been shortlisted or have won in previous years, visit the CBCA website for lists. 

Look out over the coming weeks for art tasks highlighting this year’s Shortlist. The winner will be announced in October. 

Happy BookWeek!

Mandy Cooper