Despite having a mum who’s a children’s book author, my kids have done the Book Week walk of shame pretty much every year, dressed variously as Percy Jackson (T-shirt and jeans), Charlie Bucket (T-shirt and jeans) or, in the only year we exceeded expectations, Rosie Revere, Engineer (T-shirt and skirt).
Ours is always the household erupting into panic the night before the Book Week parade, with shouts and accusations flying around: “I thought it was next week?” “Why don’t we own a glue gun, a latex prosthetics kit and a selection of wigs like NORMAL PEOPLE?” and (piteously), “Do we have time to wash my jeans at least?”
This year I’ve actually had a good idea. Only this Book Week costume is not just any old dress-up – it’s a call to arms. Teachers and students who wear this costume to Book Week will become part of a protest movement that could spark real, much-needed change in school communities across Australia.
The rabble-rousing, revolution-starting costume is (drumroll, please) …
A librarian.
Hush your child’s excited shrieks while I explain. I’m calling my plan Operation Overdue, because we are way past the point where governments should be getting away with paying lip service to the idea that reading is important for kids during Book Week, without providing proper funding for school libraries all year round.
Something insidious is happening to Australian school libraries. According to a 2021 survey, more than a quarter of Australian school libraries cut their budgets and staff numbers during the pandemic. School libraries that only open for a few hours or days a week, due to a lack of funding to staff them, are growing increasingly common. The role of teacher librarian is slowly disappearing, which is a disaster, because these highly qualified professionals can change a kid’s life – and I speak from personal experience.
At my government high school, a dynamic teacher librarian named Ms Boyd started a book club. Only we didn’t just discuss books in the library. Ms Boyd took us on field trips that introduced us to the essential cogs of the book industry and community. I remember going to Dallas Brooks Hall, in East Melbourne, to hear Roald Dahl speak. Isobelle Carmody talked to us about the Obernewtyn Chronicles and John Marsden signed my copy of So Much to Tell You. We visited the headquarters of Penguin Books and went to The Little Bookroom, a specialist children’s bookstore.
The result of Ms Boyd’s efforts was that it never once occurred to me that becoming an author was an out-of-reach ambition. It seemed to be a job that quite a lot of people had, so one day I just sat down and wrote my first book. It’s only now that I realise how my career was shaped by the extraordinary exposure I was given to authors, books and the culture of bookstores and institutions that support writing.
I’ve heard the acclaimed author Maryam Master speak movingly about the sanctuary that her school library provided when she immigrated to Australia at the age of nine, not knowing a word of English. Another award-winning children’s author, Shirley Marr, used to escape to her school library every lunchtime to read. Scratch the skin of most children’s book authors and you’ll find a passionate advocate for school libraries, born out of personal experience, because school libraries are, and always have been, the incubator for the next generation of Australian writers.
All of which brings us back to Operation Overdue and the shock-and-awe tactic of dressing up as a librarian for Book Week. This is how it could work:
First, choose your costume. Librarian characters in books include knights, warriors, animals and at least two superheroes.
Next, invite your local politician to take part in your Book Day celebrations.
Finally, assemble the troops! Turn your Book Week parade into a Book Week protest – don’t forget to bring placards that clearly state your school library’s needs.
After the parade/protest is finished, send your local pollie to the principal’s office for a stern talking-to about how close they are to failing their only subject: meeting the needs of their constituents. Keep them in detention until they agree to, first, make funding their electorate’s school libraries a priority, and second, introduce a policy that mandates staffing government schools with qualified teacher librarians.
If your local politician can’t or won’t attend your Book Week celebrations, go online. Get everyone in your school community to post about your Book Week protest to all of their social media accounts, making sure everyone tags their local MP.
Book Week is coming but, given the challenges faced by many school libraries, what to wear should be the least of our worries.