Library News

Premier’s Reading Challenge Monday 23 February – Friday 18 September 2026

Congratulations

Congratulations to these readers who have completed the challenge:

Year 3

• Tiara Phan
• Beatrix Pilton-Pepper

Year 4

• Elizabeth Feng

Well done! Please come to the library to choose your bookmark.

Book Launch Invitation – Preorder available!

Thursday May 14
Daphne Line Hall
2.20pm

Parents and carers are warmly invited to attend the book launch of Belong. Author and illustrator team, Sharon Seymour and Freya Goldsmith, will talk about their inspiration for this picture book. Copies will be available to purchase from the publisher, Westwords. Afterwards, join your daughter for a Book Picnic in their House group.

If unable to attend, you can preorder a copy signed by Sharon and Freya.

From the Author

I believe the best writing comes from lived experience and connects deeply with the reader. Many people at one time or another will have felt excluded. We all long to belong. It is particularly true of young people who are beginning to build relationships outside of family, taking their first steps to becoming social beings. 

Stories afford readers a safe space to explore their own feelings, question the world around them and empathise with others. This is why I entered the WestWords Picture Book Manuscript competition in response to the theme of Belong. The story follows an arc from exclusion to inclusion but does so in a child friendly way. I wanted to make the words dance with each other, evoking feelings, sparking curiosity and delight, while Freya’s images link the abstract concepts to familiar, adorable characters with which the reader can build a relationship.

My love of children’s literature spans decades. As a book reviewer, Teacher and Teacher Librarian I have had the privilege and joy of passing that love onto future generations. Having completed a Masters in Writing and Children’s Literature I know what young people are passionate to read and am humbled that I now have brought a story from conception to reality, that will sit in our library bookshelves among the books that I love and have read so many times. 

Happy reading!

– Sharon Seymour
Teacher/Librarian