The Australian Reading Spine is a list of classic books and high-quality literature. The Reading Spine is a Talk for Writing concept, and is intended to form the core of a primary school read-aloud program, which can then be supplemented with additional reading materials.

The Australian Reading Spine has been developed by the DSF Talk for Writing training team, with input from Pie Corbett, and is based on Pie Corbett’s original Talk for Writing Reading Spine, published by Scholastic in the UK.

5% of the value of all purchases from the Australian Reading Spine will be donated to the Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation.

More information

How it works

The Australian Reading Spine is divided by classroom years. Browse the selection for each year level to see what titles are recommended. If you're ready to buy, we have several options available for you:

  • School or Library Account

    Contact us to set up a school or library account. This entitles you to a 10% educational discount, as well as free shipping and personalised service. You can use your account to purchase from the Australian Reading Spine, as well as all of our other wonderful books & resources.

    Set up your account today 

  • Gift Registry

    Looking to involve families in curating your library? We can run a special gift registry for you, where families at your institution can purchase books for donation to your library. Your gift registry is entirely personalised to the needs of your school or library!

    View an example registry 

  • Standing Orders

    In addition to the Australian Reading Spine, Paper Bird curates a selection of new release literature each term to supplement your school or classroom library. If you’d like to recieve these key releases, you can sign up for our standing order service.

    Standing Order Service