National funds help little book club get a whole lot bigger
19 June 2006
A $330,000 funding boost from the Australia Council for the Arts will encourage reading for toddlers by growing South Australia’s Little Big Book Club nationwide.
The Little Big Book Club is a successful new program that encourages reading and literacy amongst pre-school-aged children in South Australia. It already has provided resources, reading packs and a website for over 4000 new parents.
The Australia Council has allocated over $330,000 over the next three years to support the national expansion of key aspects of the program.
The funding will support the development of new parent guides, an age-based colour coding system for libraries and bookshops, a pilot program to prepare children for reading at school and website developments.
Australia Council acting executive director for market development Ron Layne said that The Little Big Book Club was a great example of arts education in action.
‘Parents can give their children no greater gift than the written word. Reading aloud to toddlers is the most important activity in the development of literacy,’ he said.
‘Since its inception last April, The Little Big Book Club has had astonishing success in getting South Australian parents reading to their young children.
‘We hope that by supporting the national growth of the incredibly successful Little Big Book Club, alongside our other initiatives such as Books Alive, we can contribute towards all Australian parents reading to their young children and imparting a lifelong love of books.’
Support for The Little Big Book Club is one of 14 strategic initiatives announced by the Australia Council in April to address key issues in the arts landscape today.
The Little Big Book Club is supported by the South Australian Government, the Australia Council, Public Libraries of South Australia through the State Library of SA and The Advertiser newspaper.