Ms Libby Baker, a teacher librarian at Hughes Primary School in the ACT, has been named the 2025 Reading Australia Fellow for her project Everybody’s Story: Investigating character diversity in Reading Australia and award-winning picture books using a functional grammar analysis.
The Reading Australia Fellowship provides $15,000 to a leading English and/or literacy teacher or teacher librarian to undertake a career-enhancing research project that will benefit the successful Fellow as well as the education sector.
Copyright Agency created Reading Australia in 2013 to provide much-need resources for Australian teachers. There are now more than 300 curriculum-mapped resources on Reading Australia for years F–12.
Ms Baker’s project will investigate character diversity in existing and new Reading Australia and award-winning picture books using a functional grammar analysis. Her research will focus on award-winning and nominated picture books from the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, the Koala Awards, the SCBWI Picture Book Illustrator Award, the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) and the Young Australian Best Book Awards (YABBA).
To broaden her research and include a variety of voices in the texts, Ms Baker will include new books that showcase diversity from a variety of Australian publishing houses.
Copyright Agency CEO Ms Josephine Johnston congratulated Ms Baker for her timely project.
“The Reading Australia Fellowship is a significant opportunity for a teacher librarian, and Libby’s project will assist Reading Australia and teachers to ensure texts studied in schools reflect the richness of our diverse population,” she said.
“Reading Australia’s resources are mapped to the Australian Curriculum and Cross-Curriculum Priorities and we ensure that new published resources are culturally appropriate and meet the needs of Australian schools. Libby’s research will inform future selection panels for Reading Australia resources and assist teachers and teacher librarians to select appropriate texts for classrooms.”
Ms Baker will share her research and findings broadly with colleagues next year.
