School Visits

I had an amazing week of school visits in Brisbane last week – very busy, but very rewarding. With John Moffat of the Book Garden kindly volunteering to drive me, I was whisked in and out of thirteen schools, with time for a cup of tea (and often a bit more!) and a chat with most of the librarians before the talks. What a dedicated bunch they are! At nearly every school, whether government or private, I was told, ‘We’re so lucky here – our kids are just great.’ I suspect that attitude might have had something to do with it!

The groups were large: 90 to 300 kids, mostly grades 4 to 7, and so I used Nim’s Island to discuss the development of story to book to film. (Except for the Grade 9’s studying Peeling the Onion, when obviously I discussed it!)
However the first school, John Paul College, had an interesting approach: two students interviewed me, using questions drawn from ones all the students had submitted. Each question was illustrated with a power point slide projected behind us, with pictures drawn from my sites, or simply appropriate photographs. It was wonderfully done – and most amazing of all, even though I had no idea how many questions there’d be, we finished it in exactly the hour – couldn’t have done better if it had been rehearsed!