Dates: August 22–28, 2026
Feature Illustrator: Briony Stewart, award-winning author-illustrator of ‘Gymnastica Fantastica’ and other children’s books.

A Symphony of Stories, A Chorus of Languages

This year's Children's Book Week theme, A Symphony of Stories, reminds us that every story adds its own voice to something much bigger. A symphony is never made from a single instrument.

It is shaped by many voices, many sounds and many perspectives coming together to create something richer than any one could alone. Perhaps Australia's bookshelves should be the same.

Across our classrooms and communities, children grow up hearing Arabic, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Dari, Farsi, Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, Assyrian, Greek, Italian, Korean, Auslan, Aboriginal languages and hundreds more alongside English.

Each language carries its own stories, rhythms, histories and ways of seeing the world.

This Children's Book Week, alongside the wonderful CBCA shortlisted titles, we encourage educators, librarians and families to think about another kind of symphony:

• Stories in home languages.

• Bilingual books shared across generations.

• First Nations languages and storytelling.

• Stories in translation.

• Books that help every child hear—and see—themselves in the pages they read.

Because when every language has a place on the bookshelf, every child has a place in the story. At Lost In Books, we're proud to curate books in more than 80 languages, helping schools, libraries and early learning services build collections that reflect the communities they serve.

This Book Week, let's celebrate a true Symphony of Stories - one where every language has a part to play.

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