Australia’s
National Reading Hour is fast approaching: 6 pm on Tuesday August 19: a time
when we celebrate the act of reading with children. Reading is one of the most important things in my life. Stories
take us into new worlds and teach us something more about ourselves, all at the
same time. 
But reading to a child is an even greater gift than this. Sharing
the story enhances the enjoyment; undoubtedly it deepens the child’s
understanding of a more difficult text – and most importantly, it’s an
expression of caring. Most of us lucky enough to have grown up with bedtime
stories remember them as a time of warmth, safety and love; most of us who read
bedtime stories to our children will remember them in the same way. What better
way to lay down the association between pleasure and learning; to give your
child a resource for difficult times?
As an author who grew up with those feelings for bedtime stories,
and attempted to pass them on in the same way to my children, it’s very special
to me to hear of my own books being part of this interaction.
So if you would like to
celebrate the National Reading Hour by having me read a pre-bedtime story to your
child or children, over Skype or phone if you don’t live next door, just
comment on this blog, email or tweet. Tell me why you’d like it, or what
reading means to you, because that’s fun for me to hear, though I’ll choose the
winner by random drawing, because it would be just too hard to choose the best
reason for sharing a story!
Here’s what some author
friends and I said about reading a couple of years ago: