Penguin Random House Australia has announced that 55 bookshops across Australia will be getting a share of $100,000 to nurture young readers in their communities.

We are over the moon to be among the bookstores that received grants to nurture the young readers in our community!

Thank you to Penguin for such a generous initiative and thank you to all of you readers who continue to come to us and trust us to find those special books that will excite, engage and enrich your kids and unlock their life-long love of reading. It’s an honour to be afforded that trust and we’ll be using this funding to start on exciting new projects that will spread that love of books even further.

Read on for the projects our Kids, Hawthorn, Malvern, St Kilda and Doncaster shops will be working on. And keep your eyes peeled on our social media in the coming months for more details!

The Doncaster store will be using the money to support and further develop their existing Children’s Story Time and Middle Fiction Book Clubs. They are also looking to begin a monthly Young Adult Readers club that is dedicated to reading, discussing and sharing ideas and creative responses to young adult literature.

The Kids store will be using the money to establish an author-/illustrator-in-residence program. Working with Melbourne-based authors and illustrators, the program would take place over a week, where a different artist is set up in the Kids store window for a few hours each day. The purpose of this project is to draw attention to the incredible pool of talented author-illustrators we have in Melbourne and feature them at work.

The Hawthorn store will be using the money to set up a ‘footy day’. During the day, guest authors and illustrators of footy books, as well as two professional footballers, will host workshops and activity sessions. This is with a view to encouraging a love of reading for young footy fans and reluctant readers (as well as committed ones) by tapping in to their love of footy, but also going beyond to keep them reading.

The St Kilda store will be using the money to upgrade their existing children’s space with new specialist equipment and materials, with a view to making it more accessible, opening up the space to more visitors every day. This will include new, tactile beanbags specially designed for use by kids with ADHD. St Kilda is also looking to introduce a new public review system, complete with noticeboard and custom-designed review cards.

The Malvern store will be using the money to support costs associated with engaging local kids in month-long readathon in July. Family and friends will sponsor the kids to read as many books as possible. The student with the most books read (and most money raised) at the end of the month will win $400 worth of books for their school library. All money raised will go towards the Readings Foundation.

Congratulations again to all recipients of this very generous grant. We are very excited to get these new plans underway. Stay tuned for more updates!