Hey cHEwY gum gums, Happy Book Week!

Yes, it’s finally here. Like everything in 2020, The CBCA Book Week was postponed until this week. But this year’s Book Week was a little more special because after a winter of pandemic-related blues, it felt like everyone was ready to celebrate! I hoped your social media feed was flooded with Book Week costumes and book displays too.

Book Week in the new normal meant that there were no parents on school grounds taking happy snaps, and book parades being zoomed out, but there was still a buzz with kids, teachers and librarians getting their cosplay on!

I was also looking forward to Book Week, mainly because schools were beginning to open up here in Term 4. In normal years, I’d be a little tired by Book Week, after 5-6 weeks of non-stop touring, but I felt fresh, eager to be back in front of kids. And judging from some other authors and illustrators in NSW, they’re also enjoying being out and about again.

It was quite fitting that my Book Week was spilt between in-school and virtual visits. Today, I had a whole day virtual workshop with some excited Year 3 and 4 kids on behalf of PETAA! Oh, and I also got a chance to virtually meet Paul Jennings, one of my all-time heroes. It was for a Better Reading FB event, which I’ll delve into later in next week because he mentioned something that will spark my next blog post haha.

This Book Week has kicked off a busy touring period where I’ll be doing a festival, more livestreams and virtual events, and a few more surprises too (watch this space!)

How was your book week?

O.W