It’s not every day a school leader addresses the assembly dressed as a Cowardly Lion – but during Book Week, anything can happen!
Mr Whittaker perfectly captured this sense of endless possibilities in his assembly address during Book Week 2026, speaking to the power of reading to transport readers, build imagination and develop a love of learning.
Read Mr Whittaker’s speech below.
I want to ask you a couple of questions. You don’t have to answer them out loud, just think about it.
Would you rather eat a really delicious meal, or watch your friend eat a really delicious meal and tell you how great it is?
Would you rather kick the winning field goal in the last seconds of the State of Origin, or just hear about it the next day?
Would you rather be the hero who saves the whole world from some catastrophe, or be that character in the background saying, “phew, glad someone else took care of that.”
The answer is clear, right? And if you’re thinking, “but I couldn’t…”, that’s the magic of a really good book. You can do anything. A book can take you anywhere.
You can be sitting in your bedroom, in a classroom, or on the couch at home, and suddenly you’re in Hogwarts, fighting dragons, solving a murder, travelling through space, surviving a zombie apocalypse, playing in a grand final, or exploring a completely different part of the world. And you don’t need a plane ticket or a million dollars. You don’t even need to leave your chair.
That’s one of the things I love most about reading: books allow us to experience things we could never experience ourselves.
You can live a thousand different lives through books.
You can be the hero.
You can be the villain.
You can be the detective.
You can be the person who has absolutely no idea what’s going on but is somehow involved anyway.
And sometimes, you can simply find a character who understands how you’re feeling.
That’s pretty powerful.
But here’s the other thing about reading: it makes you better at almost everything else you do at school.
Reading regularly helps you build your vocabulary. It helps you understand complicated ideas. It helps you write better. It helps you communicate more clearly.
The more you read, the easier reading becomes.
It’s a bit like going to the gym.
The first time you get on that treadmill or pick up those weights it is going to feel pretty difficult.
But if you keep at it regularly, eventually that run feels easy, that weight feels light, and you feel all the stronger for it.
PHOTOS: Book Week Parade 2026
Reading works in much the same way. The more you read, the stronger your reading “muscles” become.
There is something else that reading gives you which is really important: imagination.
When you watch a movie, someone has already decided what everything looks like.
They’ve chosen the actors. They’ve designed the houses. They’ve created the monsters. They’ve chosen the music.
But when you read a book, your brain does all of that work.
The author gives you the words, but you create the world.
The Bible itself is full of stories — stories about people who made great choices, people who made terrible choices, people who struggled, people who changed, and people who discovered something about God and themselves.
One of the main arguments I hear a lot is, “why would I read when I can just watch the movie?”
It’s a fair question, and I love movies. There is definitely a time and place for them. But it comes back to my first few questions. Is it better to eat the yummy food, play the important game, be the hero of the story?
Watching a movie is passive. You’re a passenger. If you get up and go for a snack, or fall asleep, the story continues without you, and you’re left behind.
Reading is different. You’re an active participant. You get to experience the story, be the hero, create the world. No one ever got stronger by watching someone else go to the gym. You’ve got to get involved.
Reading doesn’t have to mean sitting down with a 500-page classic novel and forcing yourself through it.
If you love that, fantastic. But if you don’t, that’s okay too.
Read comics.
Read graphic novels.
Read football statistics.
Read horror stories.
Read fantasy.
Read biographies.
Read manga, mysteries, magazines.
Read something hilarious, something ridiculous, something silly your friend wrote.
The important thing is to find something you actually enjoy. Be active, and get involved.
Because somewhere out there is a book that you will love.
You just have to find it.
So, this Book Week, I want to encourage everyone here — whether you’re five years old or ninety-five years old, whether you love reading or currently think books are basically very slow movies — give reading a chance.
It’s a way of learning.
It’s a way of imagining.
It’s a way of understanding the world.
And, most importantly, it’s a way of having an adventure without ever leaving your chair.
Happy Book Week, everyone.