Book Week 2026 and how reading grows at Innocent Minds
Book Week 2026 and how reading grows at Innocent Minds
Book Week runs from Saturday 22 August to Friday 28 August 2026, and this year the theme is Symphony of Stories. The artwork comes from author and illustrator Briony Stewart, and it is a milestone year for the Children’s Book Council of Australia, with the Book of the Year Awards turning 80.
In an early learning room, Book Week looks different to a school parade. A two year old will ask for the same board book eleven times in a morning. A baby will chew the corner of it. A four year old will tell you the whole story off the pictures before anyone opens their mouth. All of that counts as reading.
What Symphony of Stories means for children under five
Briony Stewart has said the word symphony can mean many different parts coming together into one whole. That idea sits well with the rooms at Punchbowl and Yagoona, where children arrive with different home languages, different bedtime stories, and different grandparents who tell things a certain way.
During Book Week, educators lean into that. A story read aloud in English gets talked about afterwards in Arabic. A child who knows a rhyme from home teaches it to the group. The book is the starting point and the conversation is the rest of it.
Reading starts well before children can read
Literacy in the early years is mostly listening, talking and looking. The Raising Children Network puts the building blocks as speaking, listening, understanding, watching and drawing, all of which come before letters and sounds mean anything at all.
In the nursery, that looks like an educator sitting on the floor with a cloth book and naming what a baby points at. In the toddler room it is repetition, and lots of it, because the twelfth read is when a child starts predicting the next page. By preschool, children retell stories, argue about what should have happened instead, and start noticing that the marks on the page carry the words.
The Montessori influenced setup helps here. Books sit on low open shelves where children can choose one, carry it to a mat, and put it back when they are done. Small thing, but a child who chooses their own book reads it differently to one handed a book.
Books in Arabic as well as English
Across Punchbowl, Yagoona, Bankstown and Greenacre, plenty of families speak Arabic at home. Innocent Minds has multilingual educators, so children hear their home language during the day rather than only at pickup.
Arabic classes are part of the program at Innocent Minds. Children learn letters, sounds and vocabulary in a way that suits their age, which at three and four means songs, repetition and naming things they can see and touch.
For families raising children in two languages, this takes some pressure off. Children are not being asked to park one language at the gate.
Quran classes and learning by ear
Quran classes sit alongside the Arabic program. For young children the focus is oral. They listen, repeat short passages, and pick up rhythm and pronunciation the same way they pick up a nursery rhyme, through hearing it often and joining in when they are ready.
Parents often tell us their child comes home reciting something they were not taught at home. That is usually how it goes at this age.
What families can do during Book Week
Read the same book again if that is what your child asks for. Read in whichever language you are most comfortable in, because a story told well in Arabic does more for a child’s language than a stilted one in English. Stop halfway and ask what happens next. Let your child hold the book and turn the pages, even when they turn two at once.
Your local library is worth a visit during Book Week too. Borrowing costs nothing, and a pile of six books your child picked themselves will get read more often than three you chose for them.
Common questions
When is Book Week 2026 in Australia?
Book Week 2026 runs from Saturday 22 August to Friday 28 August. It is organised each year by the Children’s Book Council of Australia.
What is the Book Week 2026 theme?
The theme is Symphony of Stories, with artwork by Briony Stewart.
How do I read to a child who will not sit still?
You usually do not need to. Read while they build, or while they are in the bath, or in short bursts of two minutes. Children take in more of a story than their body language suggests.
Which childcare centres in Punchbowl offer Arabic and Quran classes?
Innocent Minds Preschool Academy runs Arabic and Quran classes as part of its program. Contact the team for current details on how the classes run.
Does my child need to speak Arabic to enrol?
No. Children come from a range of backgrounds and home languages, and the classes are pitched so that beginners are included.
Book Week is a good week to come and see a room in action. Tours run across both Punchbowl and Yagoona, and 2027 waitlist places are open now.