CHILDREN'S LIBRARY PROGRAMS 

Join us in the Kids Zone at 10am on Thursday mornings during school terms. Baby Rhyme Time is your opportunity to meet other parents and bounce and interact with your baby with fun rhymes and songs.

Rhyme Time builds an early knowledge of reading and writing in children and aims to inspire a love of reading from birth and develop a sense of community for both caregivers and children.

Suitable for children aged 0 - 2 years old, their parents, carers and friends.

Sessions are free and are about half an hour in length. There is no need to book - just turn up on the day.

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Baby Rhyme Time is supported by the Better Beginnings program. Better Beginnings is a Western Australian family literacy program that connects families with books through free reading packs. The goal of Better Beginnings is to inspire a love of literacy and learning for all Western Australian children by encouraging families to read, talk, sing, write and play with their child every day. The program has been developed by The State Library of Western Australia and is funded by the State Government of Western Australia, Royalties for Regions, Rio Tinto and Western Australian Local Governments.

The program delivers free reading packs to young children aged 0-4 years, and contain a quality Australian picture book and information and resources for parents and carers.

If your child has not yet received their appropriate reading pack please contact the library on (08) 9941 3727 or email the library. 

Held at 10am on Tuesday mornings during school term, Storytime is a great way to encourage your toddler to continue along the path of reading! A fun combination of songs, rhymes, and a craft activity each week, Storytime is a great way for your child to socialize with others and experience the library.

Suitable for pre-school children aged 2 - 4 years.

Sessions are free and normally last half an hour or a little longer on craft days. There is no need to book - just turn up on the day.

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Storytime is supported by the Better Beginnings program - see the Baby Rhyme Time section for more info!

Are you looking for an after-school activity for your 4-6 year old? 

The Crafty Bookworms is a chance to learn new art skills, increase reading and comprehension skills, and socialise with other children outside of the school environment!

Crafties participate in arts and craft activities, listen to stories, and do fun activities. Call the library for more information on (08) 9941 3727 or see our events page.

Brick by Brick LEGO Challenge

Are you aged 7-12 years and hope to become a LEGO master? You may be interested in being part of our Brick by Brick program!

Get creative with our LEGO collection! Each fortnight will feature a different challenge, with prizes to be won at the end of each school term. What will you decide to build?

Places are limited, so head to our events page and complete the Expression of Interest form!

School Holiday LEGO events

During the school holidays, the library sometimes has special LEGO Build days, so keep an eye on our events page!

Donating LEGO to the library

If you have a collection of LEGO at home that you are no longer using, the library appreciates all donations of LEGO that can help give our builders even more possibilities for amazing Builds!

NSS 2026: Wednesday 27th May

For 2026, the book will be Luna Roo: the Kangaroo Baller by Adam Jackson and Adrian Lloyd, illustrated by Jake Minton and published by Little Book Press. Stay tuned on our events page for more info in the lead-up to the day!

NSS 2025: Wednesday 21st May

In 2025, the picture book chosen was The Truck Cat written by Deborah Frenkel and illustrated by Danny Snell. Our 2025 National Simultaneous Storytime celebrations were part of the Timmy the Turtle picnic event, held at Baxter park.

About National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually in May.  Every year, a picture book that is both written and illustrated by an Australian is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, and many more places all around the country!

Science Week 2026

In 2026, Science Week will be held Saturday 15 August to Sunday 23 August.

The theme this year will be Seeds of Science.

Stay tuned for our program on our events page and follow us on Facebook.

Science Week 2025

The 2025 theme was Decoding the Universe.

Screams and excitement filled the air at Carnarvon Library & Art Gallery on Saturday 9th August 2025 when young inquisitive minds took on the challenge of investigating light and how it travels in a straight line until it bumps into something. They also investigated how white light is made up of many colours and how it can be bent and split into rainbows a concept which was loved by all. The excitement continued as the children made their own shadow puppet robot and as the lights went out and our young scientists turned on their torches, whooping reached fever pitch! All participants left with a bag full of experiments and goodies to share enthusiastically at home with their family and friends.

Science Week continued with events at Carnarvon TAFE and the Indigenous Playgroup at Carey Street.

About Science Week

National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology.

Running each year in August, it features more than 2,000 events around Australia, including those delivered by universities, schools, research institutions, libraries, museums and science centres.

CBCA Children's Book Week 2026

In 2026, CBCA Book Week will be held Saturday 22 August to Friday 28 August.

The theme this year will be Symphony of Stories, with official art by Briony Stewart.

Stay tuned for our program on our events page and follow us on Facebook.

CBCA Children's Book Week 2025

In 2025, CBCA Book Week was held Saturday 16 August to Saturday 23 August. 

With the theme; Book An Adventure, we had special Storytime and Baby Rhyme Time sessions, an Adventure in a Box Party, and our annual costume and colouring competitions!

As part of the week, there was amazing live performances of Aladdin & The Magic Smartwatch by JALLY Entertainment at the Camel Lane Theatre. So what was this adaptation all about? “Aladdin was sick and tired of his boring old lamp, so he traded it for a brand-new Smartwatch! The smartwatch was great, but it came with a very strange Genie who was always getting things wrong.”

CBCA Children's Book Week 2024

In 2024, CBCA Book Week was held Saturday 17 August to Friday 23 August. 

With the theme; Reading is Magic, we celebrated reading stories and their amazing power to transport minds.

Our special guest, storyteller extraordinaire Glenn B. Swift brought the joy of reading to Carnarvon! His book The Ghost in the Bell Tower can be found on the shelves of Carnarvon Library, and several of his short stories can be read for free on his website.

About Children's Book Week

For one week in August each year, CBCA Children's Book Week celebrates books and Australian children's authors and illustrators.

With themed displays in the kids areas of the library, dress-up competitions, author visits, and much more, CBCA Book Week should be marked on your calendar well in advance!

Children's Week 2026

Stay tuned for more details of our celebrations from 20-26 October 2026!

Children's Week 2025

On Saturday 18 October, in partnership with the Gascoyne Early Years Network, the Shire of Carnarvon brought together an array of action-packed entertainment at Church of Christ Carnarvon, with Happy Feet Fitness putting on a show filled with music, magic and laughter, and Shani from Ecoburbia wrapping up the event with a very special Storytime about Lady Marmalade.

About Children's Week

The Shire of Carnarvon is proud of our dedication to supporting young people and their families in Carnarvon. Children's Week is brought to you by the Gascoyne Early Years Network.

Summer Reading Quest 2026: Stay tuned!

Check back later to find out what's planned for the 2025-26 December school holidays.

Summer Reading Quest 2025: Monster Mayhem!

Read books and conquer challenges to win monstrous prizes; with frightfully fun drop-in activities and a colour-in competition, participants had to register to join the mayhem.

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Over December and January 2025/2026, 0-12 year olds kept track of how much they read to go into the draw to win prizes. Then from 13-31 January, we had some monster-themed fun in the library:

• 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦: Colour-in a creature with pencils, crayons, or textas. Ages 0-12
• 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘪𝘯'𝘴 𝘓𝘌𝘎𝘖 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦: Build your own monster out of LEGO. Ages 6-12
• 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘺 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦: Construct a monster out of foam blocks. Ages 6-12
• 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦: Show us your artistic skills as you draw a monster in our Art Gallery space. Ages 6-12

Thank you to everyone who participated!

About the Summer Reading Quest

Over the December and January school holidays each year, Carnarvon Library & Art Gallery encourages local kids to read with the Summer Reading Quest! By keeping a reading log of the books they read, kids can go into a draw to win prizes. We also have a series of 'reading quests' to challenge kids and make reward enthusiastic readers! 

We also hold craft activities and other events over the summer as part of the School Holiday program (see more info on this page) during this time, so keep an eye on our events page and follow us on Facebook.

Every school holidays, the Shire of Carnarvon (including the library) and in partnership with other agencies in Carnarvon, puts together the School Holiday Program to keep kids entertained over the break!

Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates during the lead-up to each school holidays.