Kingston Library was one of many organisations across Tasmania that celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) on Wednesday, May 19.
Over 100 children and 20 adults attended, including Taroona Primary School and Possums Early Learning Centre.
The session opened with Kingston Library team members performing warm-up songs.
The children then listened to Give me some Space! written and illustrated by Phillip Bunting and read by the astronaut Dr Shannon Walker from the International Space Station (ISS).
Afterward the team also read Zelda’s Big Adventure by Marie Alafaci and included theatre style performance by Kingston Library staff.
ALIA, Scholastic, the Australian Space Agency and the Office of the Chief Scientist banded together to bring children across Australia an intergalactic experience this year.
Dr Walker is a NASA astronaut who has spent more than 200 days in space.
She is currently serving as a mission specialist for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission, which travelled to the ISS on the spacecraft Resilience, on November 15, 2020.
Closer to home, Tasmanian astronomer Dr Martin George credits his inspiration for becoming an astronomer to books, reading and storytelling.
“My upbringing included plenty of time with books,” said Dr George.
“I became addicted to reading.
“I still have many of the astronomy books from my childhood and I remember the inspiration they gave me to pursue a career in astronomy.
“One of my favourite activities as a child was being taken by my father to the State Library of Tasmania in Hobart, and I recall being fascinated by the storytelling taking place there.”
Last year, more than 1,297,000 participants at more than 14,469 locations joined the fun.
Pictured above: Kingston Library staff did some warm up songs for students before this years’ story Give me some Space! was read from the International Space Station by astronaut Dr Shannon Walker. (PS)
