‘The Brothers Quibble’ to be read for National Simultaneous Storytime tomorrow; SBS creates audiobooks in multiple languages

The Brothers Quibble (Aaron Blabey, Viking) will be read by an estimated 450,000 children in more than 3000 schools across Australia at 11am (EST) on Wednesday morning, as part of National Simultaneous Storytime.

Now in its 15th year, the annual event is held by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) during Library and Information Week. The event is open to all members of the community, with special events held in libraries, schools, childcare centres and bookshops.

For the first time, SBS Radio has partnered with ALIA to create audiobooks of the chosen title in 16 languages other than English, including Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Vietnamese and the Indigenous Woirurrung language spoken by the Wurendjeri People of central Victoria.

In a statement, SBS managing director Michael Ebeid said the initiative will increase the audience for the event. ‘SBS [will] assist ALIA in reaching out to some of the more than four million Australians who speak a language other than English at home, helping bring National Simultaneous Storytime to more people than ever before,’ said Ebeid.

In 2014, more than 460,000 children inover 3100 locations across Australia took part in the event, reading Too Many Elephants in this House (Ursula Dubosarsky, illus by Andrew Joyner, Vintage). For more information about this year’s event, visit the ALIA website.

Category: Local news