DCC Ambassador, Jacqueline Harvey honours Great Debate 2023 auction winner!

At our 2023 Great Debate Gala, one of our major auction prizes included the opportunity to name a character in Jacqueline Harvey's next Willa and Woof book series.

After meeting with the family who won the incredible money-can't-buy prize, Jacqueline shared "I want to thank the real Peter, Ann-Marie, Brandon, Hudson and Daisy for allowing me the privilege of making them characters in this story. I hope I’ve done you all justice. Hudson is most definitely a great hugger and Brandon truly is the most wonderful big brother. Peter and Ann-Marie generously purchased an auction item at Dymocks Children’s Charities Great Debate, which was to have one of their children’s names in an upcoming book. When I heard about Hudson’s story and the adoration of his big brother, Brandon, I felt as if Willa would love to get to know them too. I hope you do as well.”

The Willa and Woof series follow the humorous and heartfelt adventures of eight-year-old Willa and her best four-legged friend, Woof! Double the Drama is the sixth book in the series and explores themes of friendship, imagination and conflict resolution. It’s time to put on a play at school, but not everyone is getting along. Will a new friend come between Willa and Tae?

Jacqueline Harvey is a long-time Dymocks Children’s Charities ambassador and champion for children’s literacy. It is an honour to have Jacqueline as a DCC Ambassador, her passion for literacy, storytelling and our charity’s mission is evident in all that she does. She is the author of the popular Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose, Kensy and Max and Willa and Woof series, which have sold almost two million copies in Australia alone. Her books have received numerous shortlistings and awards while her picture book, The Sound of the Sea, was a CBCA Honour Book.

Jacqueline speaks to thousands of young people at schools and festivals around the world, and says the characters in her books are often made up of the best bits of children she’s met over the years. Jacqueline will be joining DCC at our very first Inspired Readers Festival taking place in Armidale NSW in November 2023.

Dymocks Children’s Charities is so thrilled to share the wonderful story of Hudson and Brandon featuring in the latest Willa and Woof: Double the Drama. To learn more about the book, please click here

Dymocks Children’s Charities and SchoolAid partner in flood relief support for Cabbage Tree Island Public School.

Dymocks Children’s Charities (DCC) and SchoolAid have partnered together to support the Cabbage Tree Island community through their flood recovery efforts in 2022-2023. Cabbage Tree Island Public School is in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales which experienced intense rainfall and storms during the 2022 Australian east coast floods.

The Cabbage Tree Island community was evacuated from the island and was faced with the difficult task of rebuilding their homes, school and lives. The entire island was submerged because of the flooding.  

In response, DCC and SchoolAid sprung to action and joined forces to establish a sense of normality and continuity for the children through the power of books. With the generous support of donors, SchoolAid donated $22,000 towards flood relief for Cabbage Tree Island Public School which was matched by DCC to offer a substantial library regeneration program valued at over $44,000.

Library Regeneration Program

DCC’s Library Regeneration program stocks school libraries with brand-new books of their choice. The school selects books from a catalogue of over 2,600 quality titles to ensure the books target the specific needs, interests, and curriculum of the school community.

In November 2022, Cabbage Tree Island School was able to re-open in their temporary Wardell campus location. This is just the first step in the school’s flood recovery journey. Ready to welcome the students on their first day back at school were over 1,500 books.

Commenting on the impact of the program, school principal Dyonne Anderson shared “our library now has books that students can read, and teachers can use in their classrooms. Our school lost all its resources in the flood, so the program is greatly appreciated. It allows students to have access to books after 9 months with very few books.”

“We were able to select from a great range of books and topics that our students are interested in reading. We have to rebuild our whole library, so these first books are extremely important to get us started in our rebuild. The program contributes to their health and wellbeing which is a focus for our school especially at this time.”

Melanie Smith, General Manager of Dymocks Children’s Charities said “the strength and unity of the Cabbage Tree Island community and school was so evident at every step of our time working with them. Dymocks Children’s Charities with the help of SchoolAid was pleased to get books and puzzles into children’s hands to offer a small distraction and ensure children don’t lose their sense of play, imagination and fun in very difficult and confronting circumstances.”

Australian Children's Laureate, Gabrielle Wang named as Lit Club 4 Kids Author for July - September 2023

We are delighted to announce our third Lit Club 4 Kids book for 2023 is… Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon by Gabrielle Wang!

Lit Club 4 Kids is a free, online book club for children 8-13 years old. With 4 books a year, members will be challenged to let their imaginations run wild with activities and games on the Lit Club 4 Kids website.

Zadie Ma is a girl who writes magical stories that sometimes come true... Can Zadie bring to life her most important story of all, the one where she finds the dog of her dreams?

To learn more, please visit https://litclub4kids.com.au/

Iwasaki Foundation generously support 14 Library Regeneration Programs throughout QLD

Thanks to the incredible generosity of the Iwasaki Foundation, Dymocks Children's Charities received $50,000 to deliver life-changing Library Regeneration programs to 14 disadvantaged schools across Queensland.

How wonderful are these photos of El Arish State School, Normanton State School, Tara Shire State College and Weir State School enjoying their brand-new books! The grant provided over 5,000 new books to 2,370 students across the 14 schools.

El Arish State School

Weir State School shared "Our school is situated in an area of highly vulnerable families. The learning possibilities are simply endless for our students now that they have quality and updated literature in their hands which can reignite their love of books".

The charter of the Iwasaki Foundation is to promote, foster, assist, encourage and sponsor the welfare of people in need. This is done through the funding of Charitable Grants and Tertiary Education Bursaries. Thank you Iwasaki Foundation for supporting DCC's mission to improve literacy outcomes for children in Australia and encourage a lifelong love of reading.

The Great Debate Gala 2023 raises $431,000+ for children's literacy!

What a night! Our goal was to recognise the important work of Dymocks Children’s Charities and champion children’s literacy, and we did it in style at The Great Debate Gala 2023! It was our biggest and most impactful gala yet. Thanks to the generous support of our guests and sponsors, The Great Debate raised $431,900 which will be transformative in delivering books and literacy programs for disadvantaged children across Australia.

Congratulations to all our debaters Adam Spencer, Candice Fox and Dominic Knight and our winning negative team – Rachel Spratt, Tony Burke and Rob Carlton who hilariously convinced the crowd that the world does not need more celebrity memoirs.

A special thank you to our event sponsors - The Phillips Foundation, Bdynamic Logistics, Yangaro, Dymocks, Top Print, Patons and Telegram Co.

We are already looking forward to next year’s Great Debate! 

"You can’t beat reading stories to preschool children" - Lismore Preschool

Dymocks Children’s Charities was delighted to recently support Lismore Preschool with a delivery of brand-new books. Lismore along with the entire Northern Rivers region was heavily impacted by the 2022 Floods. Following devastation and destruction, DCC provided $3,000 worth of books to assist in the rebuild of their library.

The Director of the preschool shared “We opened the boxes today and let the children choose a story each. After looking at the pictures, we then read the five stories to our large group during the day. You can’t beat reading stories to preschool children”. 📚