Find out about the resources available for children at the Library and online
The Children's Quarter is a great place for families to relax and read some classic children's books from Australia and around the world. We aren't a lending library so these books will always be on the shelf waiting to be discovered. Picture books are arranged by the surname of the author. Some of the classics you can find at the Library include:
First row: Possum Magic; Koala Lou; Meet Snugglepot and Cuddlepie; The Magic Pudding: the Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum. Second row: Edwina the Emu; The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill; Diary of a Wombat
State Library Victoria acknowledges the traditional lands of all the Victorian Aboriginal Clans and their cultural practices and knowledge systems. We recognise that our collections hold traditional cultural knowledge belonging to Indigenous communities in Victoria and around the country. We support communities to protect the integrity of this information, gathered from their Ancestors in the colonial period. We pay our respects to Elders, past and present, who have handed down these systems of practice to each new generation for millennia.
Some of the Indigenous stories that you will find in our Children's Quarter include:
First row: Circles of Life; Welcome to Country; The Rainbow Serpent; Big Rain Coming. Second row: Crow Baby; Giinagay Gaagal= Hello Ocean, Counting our Country, Colours of Australia.
We want our collection to be accessible to all readers who come to the Library, which is why we have a selection of picture books in braille. These can be found in their own section on the picture book shelves, and include titles such as:
First row: There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake; Busting; My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes; Who am I? Second row: The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch; Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo; My Grandma Live in Gooligulch; Littlelight.
You can also search for books in braille in our catalogue by following the steps outlined on the 'Community languages' page of this guide and using CQ BRAILLE as the search term.
A great way to browse the graphic novels that we have in our collection is through our Collection Discovery page.
In the Pauline Gandel Children's Quarter, you can find the graphic novels upstairs on the mezzanine level. Some of the titles you'll find there include:
First row: Asterix in Britain; Castle in the stars; The adventures of Tintin: volume 4; Dog man unleashed; Melowy: the test of magic; Second row: Mighty Jack and the goblin king; Star Wars adventures: volume 5; Hilda and the midnight giant; Artemis Fowl: the graphic novel; Kirsty's great idea: the graphic novel.
As you visit the library, keep an eye out for our special sculptures from the Dromkeen Scholastic Children's Literature Collection. You can you spot koalas, wombats, dragons and gumnut babies!
The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek
Author: Jenny Wagner
Illustrator and sculptor: Ron Brooks
Cast by Meridian Foundry
Located on southern side of the Forecourt
Mr Lizard and Gumnut Baby
Author and illustrator: May Gibbs
Sculptor: Smiley Williams
Cast by Meridian Foundry
Located on northern side of the Forecourt
Memorial sculpture honouring Joyce and Court Oldmeadow, founders of Dromkeen
Sculptor: Tessa Wallis.
Includes characters from Australian children's stories including Koala Lou, Wombat Divine, Shy the Platypus. Also features a dragon which represents the children's Dromkeen Dragons club.
Located at the entrance to the Dome on level 4
