Book Week – A time for joy

This week Emma Nuttall provides a glimpse into this magical celebration in her school.

"Book Week is a very special time in schools. It must be one of my most anticipated weeks of the year!"

That is how I started my Book Week blog last year, and this year the sentiment remains. 

Schools are busy. Schools are fun. Schools are colourful. And Book Week is all of them rolled in to one!

In our school, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to connect across classes, not just within them. COVID has made gathering more challenging, and indeed interacting more generally, with limitations put on numbers, venues, activities and so on. And gathering is such a key part of what schools are about, so for us to be able to host our annual Book Week Parade this year, was all the more exciting!

Every year, we look for ways to add to the excitement of Book Week. Once again, we ran our Quiz – as hotly contested as ever. My eldest son even asked to see the quiz, despite having left the school last year – who knew it would provide such a lasting memory? And all day long, children have been asking me about this question or that question – eager to know if they were correct (or not). Our annual Parade was as colourful as ever, and our daily reading roster has taken a new, but special format. 

Mem Fox, (1994 / 2019). Tough Boris. Penguin Books.

This year, against my better judgement, my wonderful colleague also suggested we dress up in our Parade costumes (Tough Boris, the pirate, if you’re wondering) a day early and visit the classes to read the Mem Fox classic, and to do a bit of Parade reminding and marketing. Now despite being a teacher, a career known for being in the spotlight, I despise the spotlight. I dread it. I get that funny feeling in my tummy - you know the one. But as we moved from class to class, in full pirate costume and personality, I came to enjoy it. I think I even loved it. And I loved it because of the looks on the faces of the children (and staff!) that we visited. And that is what Book Week is all about. That awe and wonder. That magic. That magic, only stories can provide.

So cheers to Book Week, and until next year, keep on Dreaming with your Eyes Wide Open, because you never know when Tough Boris, or any other magical story book character may appear!

Emma Nuttall

Teacher, reader and passionate advocate for children’s literature.

Editor's note: If you missed the announcements, visit the CBCA website for Book Week, the Award winners and the Shadow Judging results.