National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime is an annual event held since 2000 by the Australian Library and Information Association. Every year a picture book, by an Australian children's author and illustrator is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes and bookshops around Australia, as part of Australia's Library and Information Week. In 2018 over 1,062,230 participants at over 8,255 locations across Australia took part in National Simultaneous Storytime.

History

The idea for a national simultaneous event followed a successful Statewide Storytime programme in Victoria in 2000.^[1] From 2002 – 2007 NSS took place during National Literacy and Numeracy Week in September. In 2008 it returned to being celebrated on the Wednesday of Australia's Library and Information Week at the end of May.^[2] In 2015 over 500,000 children at over 3,100 locations across Australia took part in National Simultaneous Storytime.^[3] In 2021 the NSS featured book Give Me Some Space! was read live to 1.98 million children across Australia and New Zealand, from the International Space Station by Shannon Walker, a NASA astronaut.^[4][5]

Titles

This table lists the titles, authors and publishers of the selected picture book for each year of National Simultaneous Storytime.

Year	Title	Author	Illustrator	Publisher	ISBN
2001	Edward the Emu[2]	Sheena Knowles	Rod Clement	HarperCollins	9780064434997
2002	Mrs Wilkinson's Chooks	Leone Peguero	Mike Spoor	Random House	9780091829360[6]
2003	I don't want to go to school[7][8]	Christine Harris	Craig Smith	Random House	9780091838812
2004	Muddled-up Farm[9]	Mike Dumbleton	Jobi Murphy	Random House	9780857989789
2005	Wombat Stew	Marcia K Vaughan	Pamela Lofts	Scholastic Australia	9780868962580[10]
2006	Good Night, Me	Andrew Daddo	Emma Quay	Hachette	9780734415851[11]
2007	The Magic Hat	Mem Fox	Tricia Tusa	Scholastic Australia	9780152057152[12]
2008	Arthur	Amanda Graham	Donna Gynell	Era Publications	9780947212124[11]
2009	Pete the Sheep	Jackie French	Bruce Whatley	HarperCollins	9780207199745[13]
2010	Little White Dogs Can't Jump	Bruce Whatley and Rosie Smith	Bruce Whatley	HarperCollins	9780207198830[14]
2011	Feathers for Phoebe	Rod Clement	Rod Clement	HarperCollins	9780732289201[15]
2012	The Very Cranky Bear	Nick Bland	Nick Bland	Scholastic Australia	9781741699920[16]
2013	The Wrong Book	Nick Bland	Nick Bland	Scholastic Australia	9781741693416[17]
2014	Too Many Elephants in This House	Ursula Dubosarsky	Andrew Joyner	Penguin Books Australia	9780670075461[18]
2015	The Brothers Quibble	Aaron Blabey	Aaron Blabey	Penguin Books Australia	9780670076000[19]
2016	I Got This Hat	Kate and Jol Temple	Jon Foye	ABC Books	9780733332302[20]
2017	The Cow Tripped Over the Moon	Tony Wilson	Laura Wood	Scholastic	9781743623534[21]
2018	Hickory Dickory Dash	Tony Wilson	Laura Wood	Scholastic	9781743623534[22]
2019	Alpacas with Maracas	Matt Cosgrove	Matt Cosgrove	Scholastic Australia	9781743816349[23]
2020	Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas	Lucinda Gifford	Lucinda Gifford	Scholastic Australia	9781760666507[24]
2021	Give Me Some Space!	Philip Bunting	Philip Bunting	Scholastic Australia	9781338772753[25]
2022	Family Tree	Josh Pyke	Ronojoy Ghosh	Scholastic Australia	9781761126307[26]
2023	The Speedy Sloth	Rebecca Young	Heath McKenzie	Scholastic Australia	9781760974893[27]
2024	Bowerbird Blues	Aura Parker	Aura Parker	Scholastic Australia	9781760269609[28]
2025	The Truck Cat	Deborah Frenkel	Danny Snell	Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing	9781761440649[29]