Today marks the start Term 4 for Victorian schools, with other states close behind – we hope every had a refreshing holiday break.

We’ve been busily working away setting up for 2023, with lots of exciting things in the works. Keep your eyes peeled for news of touring speakers and some fresh new faces who will be ready to visit schools next year, all coming soon!

Plus there’s still time to book in a speaker visit for Term 4 to help finish off this year on a high.

We also found time for a team lunch over the holidays, which for some us was the first time meeting since pre-pandemic. Cheers to a great final term for 2022 and all the wonderful things to come in 2023!

Today is Indigenous Literacy Day! Head over to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation to see all the festivities online and in person celebrating the diversity and multilingual literacy of First Nations Communities, and the power of storytelling.

We thought we’d take the chance at Booked Out to highlight some of our brilliant speakers and their books for young readers that feature Indigenous characters and themes. What a great day to pick up one of these books from your library or local bookstore!

Gary Lonesborough Boy From The Mish
Lisa Fuller Ghost Bird
Jane Harrison Becoming Kirrali Lewis
Jared Thomas My Spare Heart
Thomas Mayor Finding Our Heart

It’s time to get organised! The Booked Out team is very excited to start planning Book Week 2023, now confirmed for 21-25 August 2023. Get in touch to start sorting out your speakers for next year. Our touring authors, along with dates, will be released very soon – so keep an eye out! We look forward to hearing from you.

We are so excited that Book Week is finally here! With hundreds of bookings happening this week, we are loving seeing all the photos and feedback coming through from our speakers and clients.

Every year, the team does a Book Week dress up! Enjoy our team dressed as some of their favourite book characters, two of which are written by our speakers – Little Gem by Anna Zobel and The Pros and Cons of being a frog by Sue deGennaro.

Happy Book Week everyone.

We would like to wish everyone a wonderful start to Book Week. Kicked off by the presentation of the CBCA award winners, the team here are so delighted to congratulate our speakers Rebecca Lim (Tiger Daughter), Andrea Rowe (Jetty Jumping) and Claire Saxby (Iceberg) on their wins, as well as Katrina Nannestad for the selection of Rabbit, Soldier, Angel Thief as an honour book.

It is also a great opportunity to congratulate Gary Lonesborough, Nicki Greenberg, Huda Hayek and Gabriel Evans for being shortlisted!

We are filled with excitement for the hundreds of visits to come over the next few weeks, and hope all the Book Week visits go well. We can’t hear to hear feedback, and start organising for Book Week 2023!

Welcome back to all our lovely clients across Australia who have recently returned from term break, we hope you have enjoyed a restful holiday. As we are leading up to August and Book Week season, we are super busy working to get speakers secured for all of our valued clients. If the year has gotten on top of you and you haven’t yet had a chance to look at a speaker for term 3 or 4, don’t fret! It is never to late to get in contact and organise a speaker for the second half of 2022. We look forward to chatting with you.

This week, we would like to highlight our wonderful speaker Ingrid Laguna for her incredible new book with Vanessa Hamilton, Kit and Arlo Find a Way. Kit and Arlo Find a Way is new and inspiring children’s fiction book, designed to teach consent to primary school aged kids. Accompanied by teaching resources written by Vanessa, this book has the potential to change the way children understand their own boundaries and the concept of consent. We are so excited by this new initiative to build awareness around incredibly important issues, and can’t wait to watch how this book takes the education world by storm.

Term 2 has nearly come to an end, and we hope that all of our wonderful Victorian clients enjoy their well-deserved school break. For those in other states around the country, or those hoping to book a speaker during the break, our lovely team will be here to help. So give us a call, or make an enquiry – we can’t wait to meet you.

Congratulations to one of our wonderful speakers, Alice Pung, for the selection of her book One Hundred days for the Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlist of 2022! Well done and good luck!

We are delighted to introduce the newest additions to Booked Out. Check out their profiles and keep them in mind next time you book a speaker to inspire and engage.

A warm welcome to… Joel McKerrow and Wai Chim.