JUNE 2017 | Joanne Eisemann

DELORAINE PRIMARY School student Becky Walters has won a statewide competition to design a bookmark as part of the Premiers Reading Challenge.

Becky got involved in designing a bookmark when her sister, Hannah, brought home details of the competition from the Deloraine Library.

Her entry was chosen as the best from the entries received in the Devonport LINC catchment area and then selected as the best of the best when all nine Tasmanian LINC winners were compared.

Becky shares on her win, “Well, we came home from school and dad had a really serious face and said ‘I have something important to tell you,’ I thought it would be something bad and then he said, ‘You know that bookmark competition? Well, you won’. It was a surprise.”

Tim Wilson travelled from Devonport LINC to present Becky with her prize at the Deloraine Library.

Becky and her family received passes to attend a Hawks game at UTAS stadium where they will have exclusive access to the Hawks ‘reading lounge’.

This will be a new experience for Becky who commented, “I haven’t really been to the footy before.”

The idea behind linking this year’s reading challenge with the Hawks is to inspire children. “The more you train in sport, the better you will be; and the more you read, the better you will be,” explains Tim and adds “There is a study that has come out now and it's showing that younger people are preferring to read a real book to an eBook and the main reason that I see is that there are less distractions.”

Becky agrees with Tim. She much prefers to read a hard copy book than one online.

Over 38,000 children have signed up for this year’s Premiers Reading Challenge which starts in July.  Participants will read 10 books in 10 weeks.

Photo | Mike Moores