Book Week 2026!

Learning in the Library

As always, Book Week presents a wonderful opportunity to celebrate not only reading but coming together as a whole school community to mark the occasion.

CBCA Shadow Judging

As part of this year’s CBCA Shadow Judging program, a group of Year 10 students – Olivia Lee, Josephine Chui, Zahra Assassa, Harriet Hoogland, Mabel Clarke, Willow Harris and Hayley Chan – spent 10 weeks reading and evaluating the CBCA shortlisted titles in the Older Readers category. This was in the lead up to Book Week with the intention of choosing a Santa Sabina-nominated winning title before the CBCA announced their chosen winner on Friday 21 August.

Meeting regularly with the Teacher Librarians, students considered each book against the official CBCA judging criteria and engaged in thoughtful discussions about literary quality, themes and reader impact. The shortlist provided students with an excellent opportunity to explore shortlisted Australian young adult literature published this year.

After deliberation, our judges selected This Stays Between Us by Margot McGovern as the Santa Sabina winner. Interestingly, their choice aligned with the national Shadow Judges’ selection.

Congratulations and thanks to our Shadow Judges for their commitment, insight and enthusiasm throughout the program.

Book Week celebrations

Book Week started in earnest on Monday 24 August with some lunchtime fun in the library where we hosted book trivia. Our students had a great time competing against the teacher team, even though the teacher team won!

On Tuesday we invited students to participate in ‘Drabble,’ an engaging creative writing opportunity. They were challenged to write 100 words in 10 minutes linked to the ‘Symphony of Stories’ theme, all while listening to a live music performance by our student musicians.

Wednesday was also an important day with students participating in the much loved ‘Write a Book in a Day,’ an annual event challenging two groups of students to write a whole book from 8:30am to 6:00pm, while supporting The Kids Cancer Project. The two works were spectacularly creative! They can be found under WABIAD 2026 on the Veritas Online library page. We are proud to announce that the generous family and friends of both teams donated almost $2500.00 for such an amazing cause. There is still an opportunity to donate here for seniors, and here for Years 7 and 8.

Throughout the week, students and staff were also invited to participate in the ‘Teacher’s Favourite Books’ competition, where teachers shared their favourite novel and author this year along with their favourite literary character. The information was then displayed in the library and participants had the week to observe what their teachers enjoyed reading before completing a quiz the following week. Well done to our participants and, of course, our winners of the event.  And naturally, Book Week would not be Book Week without the inclusion of our Book Week Character Parade! The event was a wonderful celebration of books and reading, allowing staff and students to dress up as their favourite book character while having fun and promoting a sense of community spirit. The parade raised over $570 that will go towards books for The Solomons.

While we couldn’t quite line up her visit to coincide with Book Week, it was wonderful to have renowned children’s author Ashleigh Barton visit Gioia House soon afterwards. Ashleigh visited us on Tuesday 15 September to talk about her new book Eighty-Nine Questions After, a novel exploring the power of curiosity, friendship and courage. Ashleigh’s talk reminded us that books encourage readers to explore unfamiliar experiences, develop empathy and better understand ourselves and others. Her visit was also a reminder that stories do more than entertain. They help us ask meaningful questions about the world we live in.

Once again, we thank our students and staff for their support and enthusiasm behind Book Week. And we are already looking forward to Book Week 2027 which is themed, ‘Catch the Reading Bug!’