Book Week Fun

Here are some pics from BOOK WEEK. Courtesy of the wonderful Jean Saxby, T/L at Galston Public. Thanks, Jean!

Firefighting fun!

My volunteer firefighters are pretty tired after putting out the fire at Lulu's Ice-creamery.

Teacher / Librarian, Jean Saxby and moi.
Look at the great FREAKY poster on the window.

Glorious Saturday

Glorious Saturday. After a week of zipping from one side of the countryside to the other, from Galston to Dapto, from Camden to Pymble to Bankstown, speaking to well over a 1,000 children, today I spoiled myself with walks on the beach, cafe breakfast with my hubbie, coffee with friends and lying around reading (Saving Francesca - Melina Machetta) and dozing. Ahh - it's been wonderful.

What a week! Friday saw me heading off to Bankstown City Library. The wonderful children's librarian there, Tara, conducts an amazing Book Week program (which runs for about three weeks!) ferrying authors and illustrators to schools and libraries all over the Bankstown area. This year she has had Sarah Davis, Di Wu, John Heffernan, John Larkin and moi.

First up we shot across to Al Sadiq College, Yagoona to speak to Years 2 & 3. We needed to lug my rather heavy "bag of tricks" and other paraphernalia up two steep flights of stairs - but it was worth it! The kids were fantastic. Attentive and bubbling with enthusiasm - they were intrigued with the whole process of how an idea became a book and asked some rather intelligent questions about the publishing process. The only minor hiccup occurred when I nearly scared one poor young lady half to death with Charlie - my enormous puppet spider. (Sorry!)

Next we headed to Greenacre Library to share stories with Year 2 from Greenacre Primary. Their love of books was catchy and the session was a lot of fun - made even more so by Fire Chief Holden's wonderful help with the dramatisation of The Firefighters. I felt it wise to leave Charlie in the bag for this session as I didn't want to be responsible for any more frights or potential nightmares!

Last session for the week was at Sefton Infants School and I must admit that the enormity of the week sort of hit me halfway through the session and I found myself suddenly very weary and extremely tired of my own voice. Fortunately, adrenaline kicked in and aided by a sea of smiling, excited faces we bravely saved Lulu's Ice-Creamery and toiled over bubbling pots of sugary syrup, until the session was over and so was Book Week. Phew!

Well ... almost. I still have one more school on Monday. Blaxland Public, here I come!

The Firefighters - Paperback and Big Book

The Firefighters, illustrated by the wonderful Donna Rawlins is now out in paperback and big book. The big book is particularly gorgeous - wonderful to see Donna's art gloriously larger than life. Saw a lovely display of the paperback today at Better Read than Dead (Newtown) with a recommendation and a cheeky note about how Donna and I can often be found hanging outside the local fire station! Made me laugh. (How did they know?)

Classroom ideas have been updated to include big book activities and can be found by clicking on this link. (And also at the Walker Books Australia website.) Click here for a Firefighters' colouring in sheet.

Lots of Fab Stuff

While I have been busy flitting around the place sugar plum fairying, some other fab stuff has been happening.

In no particular order:

1. The Firefighters has been shortlisted for Speech Pathology Australia's Book of the Year Award. You can view the shortlist here. As a former literacy teacher, this is sweet news indeed.
2. It has also been listed by Brisbane's Book Garden Bookstore as one of the top ten books for children for the holidays at ourbrisbane.com.
3. I received a great review for the Sugar Plum Fairy at Aussiereviews. The words "sheer delight" were kinda cool to read!
4. Australian Women Online magazine did a feature article on me. How exciting is that! You can read it here.
5. I received a lovely thank you letter and a whole pile of kid-made postcards from the kids at Rossmore Public School. I did a school visit there a few months ago and had a ball! What a great school, and what a wonderful surprise to receive in the post. Thanks, Mrs McGregor! Thanks kids!

Here are some snippets from the postcards:

"Thank you so much for coming to our school. We had a fun time when you were here. I've read 'Battle of the Rats'. It was gross but at the same time amazing. I think you are an amazing writer. I love 'Freaky'. I am reading it again ..." Tianna

"We really enjoyed the time you were here. I thought you were very funny." Taryn

"... I enjoyed making a book and hearing your stories ..." Andy

"... It was so funny I nearly died (which you wouldn't want me to do, I hope). Thank you very very much." Hunter

"... We learned many new writing skills and were inspired to write our own stories. One of my favourite parts was Cooking up Books because it was an easier way of remembering the writing process. It was fun and interesting. We are reading Battle of the Rats in Library and loving every minute of it." Lauren

Wow - doesn't get much better than that!

Now, on the down side, I have to admit to only adding 2 500 words to my current WIP during the last month. That will teach me for bragging about getting to 25 000!