Jackie French must be a most fascinating person. She’s the much-loved author of books for children and adults. She is a tremendous advocate for school libraries, and offers insights into their value during her recent interviews for the SNSL campaign’s films. Jackie is also an honorary wombat - I suspect that mark of respect is equally as important to her as her many literary and national awards. She cares. And she rightly believes that books and our wonderful librarians have the power to change the world.

As if that’s not inspiration enough, Jackie can also write poems that cut right to the heart of something. Here’s her A Song to Our Librarians.

When it comes to supporting our school libraries, I truly relish the thought of an army of readers, don’t you? I love that they will be vocal and passionate in support of our vision “…that every student has access to a dynamic, well-resourced school library run by qualified library staff.” Working together we can make it a reality.

If you’re new to the Students Need School Libraries campaign, check us out on Twitter, FB and the website and share with everyone you know. If you work in a school library, do consider entering the Students Need School Libraries Photo Competition. There are great prizes, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re taking action to champion an amazing campaign.

Susan Stephenson

Susan Stephenson is a book reviewer and writer at The Book Chook who loves libraries and knows librarians do not get enough credit for the wonderful job they do. She would like to hug everyone who is supporting the Students Need School Libraries campaign, in particular Jackie French who wrote this lovely poem.