News Corp launches Storybook Collection to raise Australian literacy standards
News Corp wants to raise literacy standards in Australia and encourage love of reading, through its new ‘Great Australian Storybook Collection’ campaign.
The 15 book collection, which launches today in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory, and tomorrow in New South Wales and Queensland, aims to celebrate the best Australian children’s books.
Mem Fox’s Possum Magic is the first book to be released, and will be free with the purchase of a metro or regional newspaper along with a collector case.
The remaining 14 books, including Banjo Patterson’s Waltzing Matilda and May Gibbs’ Tales from the Gum Tree are available each day for $2.30 with a newspaper purchase.
News Corp’s new campaign will run in The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail, The Advertiser, Herald Sun and regional newspapers including The Mercury, The Herald and Weekly Times, Sunshine Coast Daily and The Morning Bulletin and more than 4000 retail stores will sell the ‘Great Australian Storybook Collection.’
Fox has five books in the collection, and hopes to raise the importance of reading for young children.
“It’s magical, what reading does for a child’s imagination in terms of encouraging them to think about amazing characters and places,” she said.
“This collection is a lovely mix of beauty and history as well as a bit of silly and fun with titles every child and parent will enjoy.”
News Corp Australia’s director of corporate affairs and editorial management, Campbell Reid, said he wanted to “turn up the heat on literacy standards nationally” through the campaign.
“Literacy is crucial to a strong economy in Australia. It’s vital that strong reading habits are formed in early years and nurtured throughout life,” he said.
The campaign comes after a recent Great Australian Reading Survey by News Corp Australia, which ran across all mastheads, as part of the Raise a Reader campaign.
News Corp’s Storybook Collection includes Fox’s Possum Magic, Time for Bed, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Patridge, This & That, and The Magic Hat, as well as The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith, Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey, I Went Walking by Sue Machin and Julie Vivas, Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey, The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland, There was an old lady who swallowed a mozzie by P.Crumble, Gibbs’ Tales from the Gum Tree, Pig the Fibber by Aaron Blabey, Patterson’s Waltzing Matilda and Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan.
Sounds like the blind leading the blind. Is anyone at News functionally literate?
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Are there any Aboriginal authors in there?
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