Puffin announces 100,000 reasons to get kids reading

‘We are absolutely thrilled with the quality of applications received and the wonderful range of initiatives proposed,’ said Julie Burland, CEO Penguin Random House Australia. 

Projects ranged from starting in-school book clubs, to providing books to the Mothering at a Distance Program. There are poetry workshops, books for blokes, a readers’ hub for regional schools, footballers reading books, lap-time story-times, street libraries and many others. All these projects will encourage communities to read more.’ The winning bookshops receive funding between $500 and $5,000 to be spent on their nominated project.

Australian Children’s Laureate Morris Gleitzman was thrilled that his local bookshop, Riverbend Books in Bulimba, Brisbane, was one of the stores that received the full funding of $5,000 for its proposal to start a Young Reviewers Program.

‘One of the things I love about the Riverbend proposal is that it’s encouraging young people to find their voices and have conversations about their reading. These conversations, whether between kids and adults or kids and kids, are as important as the books themselves.’

Gleitzman is a passionate advocate for reading and believes that young people need stories more than ever. At the same time, he is encouraging adults to think more deeply about the transformative role stories play in people’s lives. ‘Booksellers put creativity into bags every day, and some of it has clearly rubbed off. These project ideas are brilliant. And generous too. A lot of these ideas will work just as well in schools and libraries,’ said Gleitzman. ‘Good on Penguin Random House for applying such vision and out-of-the-box thinking to the job of making children rich with reading.’

Booksellers receiving the Puffin Grant

NSW

• Dymocks Albury
• Beachside Bookshop, Avalon
• The Children’s Bookshop, Beecroft
• Gleebooks Blackheath 
• The Bookshop Bowral 
• The Bookroom Collective, Byron Bay
• Lindfield Learning Hub 
• Lost in Books, Fairfield
• UNSW Bookshop, Kensington
• Dean Swift Books, Nowra
• Collins Booksellers Orange
• Kinokuniya, Sydney 
• Book Bazaar, Umina Beach

QLD

• Riverbend Books, Bulimba 
• The Book Garden, Graceville
• The Mad Hatter’s Bookshop, Manly
• Books by the Sea, Torquay 
• Where the Wild Things Are, West End 

SA

• Matilda Bookshop, Stirling 
• Dymocks Hyde Park, Unley

TAS

• Not Just Books, Burnie 
• The Hobart Bookshop 

VIC

• The Leaf Bookshop, Ashburton 
• Collins Booksellers Bridge Mall, Ballarat
• Brunswick Bound
• Readings Carlton
• The Little Bookroom, Carlton North Readings Doncaster
• Fairfield Books 
• Lamont Books, Hallam 
• Peterson’s Bookshop, Hastings
• Readings Hawthorn 
• Squishy Minnie Bookstore, Kyneton
• Red Door Books, Lancefield 
• Readings Malvern 
• Jeffreys Books, Malvern  
• Collins Booksellers Moonee Ponds
• Neighbourhood Books, Northcote
• Mary Martin Bookshop, Port Melbourne
• Readings St Kilda 
• Collins Sunbury 
• Torquay Books 
• Reader’s Emporium Traralgon
• Booktique Wangaratta 
• The Younger Sun, Yarraville 

WA

• Westbooks, Burswood
• Dymocks Busselton 
• Read a Lot Books, Geraldton
• Dymocks Joondalup
• Margaret River Bookshop 
• Rabble Books and Games, Maylands
• Dymocks Midland 
• Planet Books, Mount Lawley
• Dymocks Subiaco