{"id":1710,"date":"2012-02-14T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T01:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/inthenews\/?p=1710"},"modified":"2015-04-29T13:54:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T03:54:46","slug":"patients-launch-a-love-affair-with-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/patients-launch-a-love-affair-with-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients launch a love affair with reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/2012\/02\/14\/patients-launch-a-love-affair-with-reading\/nyr-for-internet\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1717\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1717\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2012\/02\/NYR-for-internet.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a>Patients and staff at The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital (RCH) swapped bandages for books and stethoscopes for stories to launch \u2018National Year of Reading at the RCH\u2019 today.<\/p>\n<p>The RCH signed up as a partner of the 2012 National Year of Reading, joining state, public and school libraries, and community groups around the country in an initiative that promotes reading and literacy and inspires Australians to become a nation of readers.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Inga Peulich MLC, Parliamentary Secretary for Education, attended the launch, which sported a Valentine\u2019s Day theme.<\/p>\n<p>The hospital\u2019s atrium, Main Street, was transformed into a Literature Lovers Lane with visits from celebrity children\u2019s authors, surprise guest appearances from popular book characters, word games, installations and performances that celebrated a love of reading.<\/p>\n<p>Felice Arena (author of Specky Magee series), Michael Wagner (author of Maxx Rumble series) and author and illustrator Jeanette Rowe with sidekick SmartyCat performed for patients and visitors throughout the day.<\/p>\n<p>Patients were serenaded by roving musicians playing love songs, before tucking into love-themed cupcakes.<\/p>\n<p>A giant Valentine\u2019s Day card was quickly filled with messages from children, young people, families and staff, sharing what they \u2018love2read\u2019, the catchphrase of National Year of Reading.<\/p>\n<p>There were also opportunities to put artistic skills to the test, with badge and bookmark making workshops and calico book bag screen-printing.<\/p>\n<p>RCH Education Institute Director, Glenda Strong, said the hospital was thrilled to be a partner of National Year of Reading.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur teachers are adept at creating exciting learning opportunities in a non-school setting that speak to children and young people as ongoing learners, particularly when a child\u2019s engagement in formal education may be compromised by a health condition,\u201d Ms Strong said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy celebrating National Year of Reading, we highlight the value of reading as an important life skill for the whole hospital community. We look forward to immersing the hospital in a culture of reading throughout 2012 and beyond,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patients and staff at The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital swapped bandages for books and stethoscopes for stories to launch \u2018National Year of Reading at the RCH\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1710"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1722,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710\/revisions\/1722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}