Kids' Own Publishing
Publishing community books
Kids’ Own Publishing is a creative community organisation, based in Melbourne since 2003. Kids’ Own publishes books by children for children from a broad range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, respecting all children’s right to a voice. The child-authored books tell stories that are generated by the children and the communities they are part of. Kid’s Own Publishing uses books and bookmaking as a means to share children’s ideas and views as broadly as possible.
A child-centred community development philosophy and framework underpins all Kids’ Own Publishing work. Children actively collaborate in all stages of the book making process. Through this collaboration, it is hoped that the books are meaningful for the children involved. Children are supported by artists, educators, carers and family to create books through a series of workshops. The workshops focus on the publication process of generating ideas, creating art, writing stories, illustrating ideas and producing final copy. Children are the key players in these activities and the empowerment of children is a vital aspect of all this publishing work.
Kid’s Own Publishing aims to support children’s rights, as codified in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (1990), and they see the approach taken in their work as being in the best interests of the child (article 3). In particular, Kids’ Own has a distinct focus on sharing information generated by children (article 13), providing access to education that develops a child’s personality and talents (articles 28 & 29), supporting children’s right to learn in their home language (article 30) and promoting children’s rights to play, recreation, and cultural engagement (article 31).