Fiona Hawke read Hickory Dickory Dash by Tony Wilson to a crowd of children and their mums as part of National Simultaneous Storytime, an annual campaign that aims to encourage more young Australians to read and enjoy books.

“This is my 11^th time taking part – we want to encourage literacy amongst young people and bring them the joy of books,” Ms Hawke said.

Now in its 18^th year, the storytime program brings together thousands of children across the country to read the same picture book at the same time.

The library’s reading time leader three times a week, Ms Hawke is an expert on picture books and says this year’s Tony Wilson tale is a lovely choice.

“It’s very funny – it uses the familiar narrative of a nursery rhyme and brings in new vocabulary and a new sound,” she said.

In 2017, more than 686,000 participants took part in the simultaneous story-time at more than 6000 locations.

This year, organisers at the Australian Library and Information Association aims to reach one million people.

Central West Libraries manager Jan Richards said the campaign was a vibrant event they all looked forward to at several libraries in the region.

“We want to ensure its an exciting experience so that children and their families know reading can be fun,” she said.