As part of National Library and Information Week just passed, SBS Radio’s Punjabi program presenter Reet Virk came to Craigieburn for a storytime session in his mother tongue.
The special bilingual session was repeated in communities and libraries across Australia as part of the 14th annual National Simultaneous Story-time campaign.
The campaign encourages more young people to read and enjoy books. Every year, a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes and bookshops around the nation.
This year more than 410,000 children in 2300 locations across Australia sat down to read a story book together, and SBS Radio partnered with the event to translate the story book into 13 languages other than English.
Audio books have also been produced in those 13 languages, which can be accessed through the SBS website.
These include versions in Arabic and Italian, both languages being widely spoken in Melbourne’s north.
