Aspiring young Queensland authors embrace big dreams

It’s no secret that Queensland students remain passionate about reading and literacy, with a record number of entries in QSuper’s Top 5 Book Challenge this year.

Almost 650 avid young readers from more than 150 Queensland schools submitted their top five books in the 2021 QSuper Top 5 Book Challenge, run annually in partnership with the Premier’s Reading Challenge.

This year’s winners, Hayden who is in Year 1 at Freshwater State School (Cairns) and Stephanie, who is in Year 3 at Albany Hills State School (Brisbane), share a passion for reading.

By submitting their top five book nominations, Hayden and Stephanie won their schools an exclusive literary workshop with award-winning children’s author and illustrator, Gregg Dreise (pictured with Stephanie).

Hayden’s Top 5 books were:

• Beware the Deep Dark Forest, by Sue Whiting
• Magic Beach, by Alison Lester
• Pokémon Encyclopedia, by The Pokémon Company
• The Story of Robbie Maddison, by Garry Fleming
• Pig the Pug, by Aaron Blabey

Stephanie’s Top 5 books were:

• Harper and the Scarlett Umbrella, by Cerrie Burnell
• Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, by Dav Pilkey
• Definitely Do Not Open This Book, by Andy Lee
• You Turkeys!, by Michael Gerard Bauer
• The Magic Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton

As well as writing children’s books, Gregg Dreise is an Education Queensland teacher and QSuper member, with a strong belief in giving back to others.

As a proud First Nations man, Gregg shared stories from his culture and inspired students to dream big and chase their passions.

“In my culture, we refer to opportunities like this as ‘wantima’, or rising up to your best,” he said.

“I’m grateful to QSuper, who have taken time to help a smaller community by giving me the opportunity to share my knowledge. For me, that’s wantima.”

Gregg delivered his workshop to more than 600 students at Freshwater State School and 850 students at Albany Hills State School.

Congratulations to our winners, and to the eight schools from across regional Queensland that were recognised as runners-up and awarded $500 book vouchers to support the reading and literacy programs in their libraries.

See the highlights from the workshops at Albany Hills State School and Freshwater State School.