“Hope: Bringing a sense of Purpose’’: The Power of Picture Story Books

Picture story books have a powerful ability to combine visual and textual storytelling, creating a rich, immersive experience for readers of all ages. These books can convey complex themes in a simple, accessible manner, making them invaluable as a teaching tool across all year levels.

In 2024, the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) highlighted many new picture story books, chosen for their unique and sensitive narratives, messages and illustrations. In each of these books we can find purposeful and meaningful ways to keep ‘Hope’ alive. A valuable example is the picture story book Hope is the Thing (inspired by Emily Dickinson’s classic poem ‘Hope is the Thing With Feathers’). Picture story books exemplify the richness and diversity of teaching resources that the Library continually provides to support learning and teaching at Kilbreda College.

Recently, teaching staff from Kilbreda were delighted to deliver a selection of quality picture story books to the Wellsprings for Women Centre. These books will support the work of the children’s playgroup programs such as the Abecedarian and Mother Goose Parent Child approaches to early childhood learning. The books were donated from proceeds of a book fair held by the Kilbreda College Library in Book Week 2024.

On our arrival to the Centre, the General Manager gave us a tour of the facilities and an understanding of the vital programs that Wellsprings provides for the well-being and education of women and children. The books were well received by the Centre’s Coordinators, who assured us that the books will be very valuable to their early childhood programs and, of course, will be well read!

We want to thank our wonderful hosts from Wellsprings for making us feel so welcome and for the lovely afternoon tea and chat; we were able to find out so much more about the important work that Wellsprings offers and get acquainted with the dedicated staff.

For more information on the valuable work that Wellsprings for Women programs offer, go to https://www.wellspringsforwomen.com/programs

Storytelling is a key part of what makes us human. We use it to share knowledge, encourage empathy, and bring pleasure. Reading enriches our lives by connecting us with stories, and helping us, literally and figuratively, write our own. (Cain Gray, L. 2023)

Year 12 Students

The Library staff would like to extend our best wishes to all our Year 12s as they embark on their exams and life outside Kilbreda College. We will miss you all buzzing around the Library each day and having wonderful conversations about your studies and life in general! We know that you will leave us with hope and a true sense of real purpose. Please don’t be strangers.

Joyce Sendeckyj

Head of Library and Information Services