Sydney media cadet 10-year-old Saviru produces an excellent special on ‘The Power of Words’ with special guest, multi-award-winning author Ursula Dubosarksy.

Angelina, April, and Saviru chat with Ursula about her super-popular titles ‘The Word Spy and ‘The Return of the Word Spy,’ and the show’s executive producer, Viarnne Mischon, talks with the team about using empowering speech and shares some tips about how to make our language more positively impactful.

Angelina and April celebrate both National Threatened Species Day and International Literacy Week with a totally packed Reading Matters Special featuring the one-and-only Jackie French, AM, whose new release ‘All Aboard’ is out now. Plus, Sarah caught up with UK author Alex Field when she was in Sydney for Book Week to find out about her new ‘Ava Sparks’ series, and the team spoke with Wonder Earthco-author Tiff Bollhorn and Viarnne Mischon, author of An Antechinus in the Attic, which celebrates its 5th anniversary on National Threatened Species Day this year.

Avin and Angelina celebrate Book Week 2025 with a Reading Matters Special featuring Book Week Ambassador author/illustrator Jess McGeachin, Reading Out Of Poverty Program Coordinator Cassie Angelatos, and CBCA Victoria President, Jo Pentony.

Christian welcomes guest co-host 9-year-old Gabriel to celebrate this year’s Indigenous Literacy Day Special, where 3 special guests share their knowledge, passion, and dedication for storytelling and preserving languages – astrophysicist Dr Kirsten Banks, author and illustrator Mia Speed, and Cindy Manfong, Publishing Projects Editor at the Indigenous Literacy Foundation!

Christian and Christiana are joined in the studio by special guest, author and Vice President of Children's Book Council of Australia (Vic), Karys McEwen, who talks about her latest title THE PAPERBARK TREE COMMITTEE, plus author/illustrator James Foley Books chats about his latest release BIGFOOT VS YETI: A LOVE STORY.

For this edition of Reading Matters, 13-year-old media cadet April produces her first 1-hour Special, featuring award-winning author and editor Karen Comer, primary teacher and phonics expert Rhiannon Rowe, Head of English across all 6 junior school campus of Haileybury. Plus, April, Iris, Tara, and Karen also speak with author Karys McEwen, Vice President of the Victorian branch of the CBCA, about the CBCA's 80th Anniversary this year and the Notables list for 2025.

In this awesome packed-to-the-max The Indigenous Literacy Foundation Day 2024 Special, Reka and Tara speak with ILF Ambassador Shelley Ware about the big Indigenous Literacy Day event at the Sydney Opera House in 2024 - a celebration with stories and songs from remote Communities, including 3 book launches, supported by a star-studded teamof ILF Ambassadors, including Bianca Hunt, Justine Clarke, Gregg Dreise, Josh Pyke a,nd Jessica Mauboy who performed to an audience of very excited children from around Australia!

Plus the team cross to Vincentia High School in NSW, to speak with Dhurga Language Teacher, Jonathan Hill, and student authors Allinjah, Kayden, Myles, Pearl, Ruby & Tyran who read from their wonderful books ngayawanj bagan-nggul, ngayawamji barra barra -nggul - 'We belong to the land, we belong to the sea' & bagan, barra barra, mirriwarr –‘The Boys Who Found Their Way’

Christian and Christiana are joined in the studio by special guest, author and Vice President of Children's Book Council of Australia (Vic), Karys McEwen who talks about her latest title THE PAPERBARK TREE COMMITTEE, plus author/illustrator James Foley Books chats about his latest release BIGFOOT VS YETI: A LOVE STORY.

Caitlin, Erin, and Quinn chat with two author illustrators whose books were shortlisted for the Global Children’s Entertainment Awards Picture Book of the Year 2023 – Kelly Canby (Timeless) and Alice Oehr (Artichoke to Zucchini) plus the team play the full version of ‘The Legend of Okatia’ by the Kars, NewZealand, which won Audio Story of the Year.

For this AWESOME Australia Reading Hour Special Reka, Gabby and Tara chat with Reading Matters returning guest, bestselling children's author Sally Rippin, plus welcome to the show illustrator Chris Kennett  and Real Pigeons author Andrew McDonald & illustrator Ben Wood Illustrator. It's a total HOOT of a show worth cooing about! Sally, Chris, Andrew and Ben will be appearing at The Magic of Storytelling to be held at Sydney Opera House 9th March for Australian Reading Hour!

This episode includes audio story breaks from Funky Kids Radio's Story Time Collection featuring: 'The Silver Wand' by Sarah Cull, 'There is a Unicorn in My Garden' by Viarnne Mischon and 'Oscar & Digby' by Virginia Wise