Lunch with the Stars - CBCA (NSW) Newcastle Sub-branch event

Booklet cover designed by Liz Anelli, Kirrili Lonergan and Gwynne Jones

The CBCA (NSW) Newcastle Sub-branch hosted its second 

'Lunch with the Stars' 

event on Tuesday, 13th September. By chance, it happened to be Roald Dahl's 100th birthday as well. We had so much celebrating to do!

Fifteen local children's authors, poets and illustrators entertained 112 local children 

from 14 primary schools from across the Hunter Region.

Each 'star' got a chance to talk to all participants 

about their writing dreams and their books.

Sue Whiting, children's author was our keynote speaker and she had us in the palm 

of her hands during her storytelling. We really appreciated Sue travelling from 

Sydney to be with us.

The schools decorated their tables to reflect their host 'star' and their book/s. 

Prizes for school libraries were up for grabs! The effort every school went to 
help build such a dynamic atmosphere for our event was amazing! 
We had lights, cupcakes, towers, hot air balloons, hand-made props 
and glitter from one end of the room to the other.

I was lucky enough to host six beautiful students and the 
lovely Renae Wilks from Hamilton Public School.

 

They decorated our table using the 'Dandelions' theme so beautifully. Thanks to the students for making poppies, hot air balloons, tyre swings, placemats and for picking dandelion puffballs and flowers.

 

 

To help celebrate Roald Dahl's 100th birthday, we asked each table to complete a Roald Dahl quiz. Two schools won Roald Dahl book packs for having the most correct answers. We asked adults not to use phones to look up answers and I'm happy to say, none were caught. An honest bunch! Roald Dahl books were for sale. And two lucky students won lucky door prizes too.

Amanda from MacLean's Booksellers created the most amazing pop-up bookshop. Every child and school in the room had the unique experience of having access to almost every book currently available from local authors and illustrators at their fingertips.

 

   

The illustration challenge was a hit again this year. Liz, Gwynne and Kirrili had everyone drawing grumpy snails and freezing giraffes among other things. Such a fun activity - even for the people who find drawing challenging (that's me!). Thanks for managing this activity Ruth and Linda!

 

The Belmont 16ft Sailing Club filled every tummy with yummy food 

from pies and sausage rolls to sandwiches, brownies and fruit. 

And how can I forget the booklet. Almost all of those 112 students now own a booklet full of autographs I know they will cherish forever. Thanks to Gwynne for helping me pull the internal pages together.

Thank you to our beautiful committee for helping our sub-branch provide such a lovely experience for our local community (Kirrili, Gwynne, Ruth, Val, Deb, Linda, Julie, Amanda and myself). We expanded the event so we could offer this experience to more students and schools this year. Every one of these committee members helped in such a significant way. It's so lovely when the workload can be shared!

Thank you to our beautiful stars for entertaining the students and for being so giving:

Kirrili Lonergan - also our MC

Jenny Blackford

Susan Whelan

Anthony Wood

Paul Russell

Lynn Jenkins

Gwynne Jones

Liz Anelli

Karen Hughes

Renee Price

Lizzie Wilcock

Deb Kelly

Jess Black 

Katrina McKelvey (ME!)

and our keynote speaker Sue Whiting

Thank you to all the schools, and their staff who helped arrange for children to attend from permission notes and transport, to supervision and rearranging of classes back at school.

Thank you to our sponsors: 

Belmont 16ft Sailing Club: room hire

Newcastle and Charlestown Toyota: funding for 2 schools to attend and funding 

for every child to take home a copy of Sue's book, 'Get a Grip, Cooper Jones'

MacLean's Booksellers: prize vouchers and support

Lake Macquarie Libraries: goodies bags and support

We were so excited when we found out our book order (112 copies) put Sue's book into reprint - every author and illustrator's dream! She signed every copy for the students too! 

Thank you to our extra volunteers: Val, Linda and Rachel. 

These special people were our guardian angles, 

always ready to lend a hand at any moment.

Thanks to Kirrili for being our MC. You did a wonderful job!

Thank you to all the students who attended. You are the reason why we write and illustrate. You are they reason we keep going. You are the reason we get rewarded for putting so much effort in providing fun, exciting and enriching experiences.

We got a very strong sense we will need to do it all again next year but for now, we are going to have a rest and I'm going to do a little writing.

Hamilton Public School students with Kirrili and I

Lunch with the Stars - Manly (CBCA Northern Sydney sub-branch event) 30th August, 2016

I had the absolute pleasure of spending yesterday as a 'star' at the seventh annual 

'Lunch with the Stars' 

event hosted by the CBCA (NSW) Northern Sydney sub-branch.

Twenty-two schools (176 students) and 22 'stars' (aka children's authors and illustrators) from across Sydney filled the Grand Hall of ICMS (old St Patricks College) in Manly. 

Grand Hall just before the kids arrived

 This amazing venue made me feel like I was in a Harry Potter story. The old 

sandstone building certainly set the scene for an incredible experience.

(I forgot to take a photo of the outside of the building this year - doh!) 

LWS Booklet 2016

Each child was given an event booklet full of 'star' information
and for gathering autographs after lunch. 
Signing these booklets is the highlight of the day for everyone which makes the hard work producing it worth it. The time and effort to bring this publication together behind the scene is mammoth (I know as I've co-ordinated and am currently finalising the
Newcastle LWS booklet with the support of a team of people). The booklet then becomes a precious memento of the occasion.

Humphreys, the local Manly bookseller, sold books by the stars during the day. 

It is so lovely to see our little book sitting with such an outstanding selection 

of beautiful children's books and to see older children buying it.

 

 I was so lucky to host a table with students from Marina Regina, Avalon. This is a small Catholic school on the north shore. It was extra special when I found out they are part 

of the Broken Bay Diocese as I used to teach in this diocese many years ago and 

I have such fond memories.

Just take a look at the following photos showing how they decorated our table with a dandelion theme. I must admit their efforts meant so much to me as our book is a picture book and these students are in Stage 3. As soon as I tried to explain picture books are for everyone, they assured me they already knew as their librarian tells them the same thing. 

GREAT NEWS! 

Notice the wooden recycled place mats, fresh flowers, hand made dandelion puffs, gardening tools, grass table runner, yellow cups and basket of paper flowers. 

They can come and decorate for me any time - clever chooks!

 

 The illustration challenge was very popular. The children had a great 

time drawing a tapir led by the amazing Marjorie Crosby-Fairall.

This last photo is my effort - hense why I am an author!

It was an absolute delight to have Kirrili with me at this event. My students got to meet her too and she got to see how the Marina Regina students decorated the table for our book. Kirrili's student's from Random House decorated her table using ideas from her LAC books.

Here are the clever chooks from Marina Regina. They dressed up using the dandelion theme as well. I have had a few of these student email me with sweet messages since meeting them yesterday. Such a highlight of my job!

 And here is a photo of all the talented authors and illustrators who gave up 

their time to help the CBCA Northern Sydney sub-branch celebrate books.

From left to right:

Katrina McKelvey, Belinda Murrell, Felicity Pullman, Wendy Blaxland, Kirrili Lonergan

Wendy Fitzgerald, Louise Park, Lesley Gibbes, Susanne Gervay, Allison Tait

Lindy Batchelor, Kaz Delaney, Kate Forsyth, Marjorie Crosby-Fairall

Deb Abela, Aura Parker, Jill B. Bruce, Laurine Croasdale, Debra Tidball

Not in photo but at event:

Jan Latta, Peter Macinnis, Mark Thomason

Thank you to Belinda and Wendy for including Kirrili, Kaz and I from Newcastle. 

The long drive to this beautiful part of Sydney is always worth it. And it's  

a pleasure to help the Northern Sydney sub-branch have fun.

With help from the Newcastle sub-branch LWS committee, I look forward to delivering our second 'Lunch with the Stars' event on 13th September to 14 local schools in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area. 

Wish us luck as I hope our lunch is as spectacular as this one!