Two thousand books are being delivered to Cherbourg so Barambah PaCE coordinator Marcus Priaulx can deliver them to homes. They’re being sent by the ALF and Marcus likened it to “a gift from the heavens”.

“I truly believe reading is the key to bonding with your children and giving them a learning ability that will have them thrive in life,” he said. “I believe if every parent read to their children every day, or opened books and made up stories about the pictures, then most of society’s troubles wouldn’t exist.

“Developing and understanding language is the key to learning and research shows it makes children kinder as they grow up because stories teach them every action has an effect on the future.”

Marcus said it would be an absolute honour to deliver the ALF books as he had run a mobile library in the community and could see how much children loved stories.

“I tell everybody ‘if you ever have a bad day come for a trip on my mobile library’.

It just lifts your spirits to see the excitement and appreciation children have for the stories.

“I had one mother say ‘my little girl told me ‘I love Marcus’ and I said ‘no you don’t you just love the stories he brings around’.

“We laughed.”

Marcus now asks anybody who wishes to get books for children aged 0-16 or help the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation with its work to contact https://aboriginalliteracyfoundation.org/  or phone 03 9650 1006.

Pictured: Gundoo Day Care early learning specialists Jeffrey Dynevor and JanelleCarlo and Murgon State School’s playgroup coordinator and parent contact officer Vera Sullivan look at the type of books the ALF will be sending to Cherbourg.