St John’s Catholic Primary School

34 Essex St Footscray

Located on the outside of our school, around the corner from a bus stop and down the road from the hospital, there's always something for everyone at our street library. A special emphasis on children's literature!

We were inspired by other street libraries’ efforts to connect with their community and share reading experiences, our school is now enjoying our own street library. Students and teachers coming in and out of the school can grab a book or leave one for others to enjoy, and parents and younger siblings can do the same! Painting it was a (long) labour of love that represents the value the school places on the enjoyment of reading. On one side of the library, we painted a number of book spines – we chose to paint books that we like and are important to us – there is a good proportion of female authors and strong main characters, both Australian and international authors, classics and ‘modern classics’, books that raise important issues (thanks and respect to Zana Fraillon and Morris Gleitzman), and authors that have done a lot of work for young people’s literacy (we salute Michael Rosen, Neil Gailman, Judy Blume, Paul Jennings and Mem Fox) . As Neil Gaiman wrote in his wonderful book ‘Art Matters’, “Your imagination can change the world…” and we want to help do that with our little library.

Located at:34 Essex St Footscray

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