The Newcastle Writers Festival Kids Program - Day 2 - Primary School Groups

The Newcastle Writers Festival Kids Program entertained and inspired over 800 children today. It helps when you have amazing presenters, kids, teachers, parents, library staff and volunteers making the show come together so beautifully.

So here I am, with a pair of heavy eyelids, sipping a cup of tea busting to tell you all about it. Please ignore any typos. I'm just glad this post is ready before midnight!

Samantha Turnbull entertained the kids while talking about her wonderful book series, The Anti-Princess Club. You may have seen her on our local NBN news earlier tonight.

Deb Kelly hosted two amazing workshops on how to write Haiku Poetry. She will be launching her new book, Ruby Wishfingers on Saturday.

Tony Flowers wowed his audiences with his amazing talent and funny stories in his 'Text To Pen' sessions. Congratulations on the release of your new picture book titled, Hello, Tony. Due for release 1st April.

Stig Wemyss (audio book voice for Andy Griffith's books and the Aussie Bites books) had his audiences in stitches during his STIG LIVE shows. Even our volunteers were highly entertained!

Michael Gerard Bauer told stories of how Eric Vale and Derek Dale came to life during his 'Dog Tales and Epic Fails' sessions. He showed lots of photos including ones of his son. His son actually illustrated these series.

Paul Russell challenged and inspired upcoming young authors in his writing workshops titled, 'Sense-ational Writing'. You could hear a pin drop during these. I was very close to ruffling some feathers in there at one point. They were just too studious!

I had the privilege of entertaining some youngsters today too. We had a long and interesting chat about how picture books are made. The accompanying adults were just as mesmerised by the process. I was very excited to debut my new Keynote skills including controlling the presentation from my iPad! If you have any idea about what I just said, you should be impressed. Getting technology to work the way you planned is always a challenge when presenting. I couldn't get the wifi to work but I managed to cope. I was just happy to successfully connect my Apple MAC to an adaptor and then to a projector by myself and make it work! Oh, and I got to wear my new, fancy shoes. They're not black!

Well, that's it for now. I'm looking forward to what tomorrow brings and sharing the day with Renee Price, Lisa Shanahan, Serena Geddes, Judith Rossell, Lynn Jenkins and Kirrili Lonergan. Tony Flowers and Samantha Turnbull get to come back and have some workshop fun, too.

See you here tomorrow night.

The Newcastle Writers Festival Kids Program - Day 1 - Liz Anelli's Desert Lake Workshop

The Newcastle Writers Festival Kids Program started today. It will continue until Saturday afternoon. It's a huge week for all involved but just seeing the kids skip back onto their buses inspired to read, write and illustrate makes it all worth it.

I'll be blogging very day until it's over. So if you can't make it, join me on my blog. It will feel like you were there.

Today started with an amazing workshop hosted by local illustrator, Liz Anelli.

Liz had a large group of Year 5 and 6 students making 2D bugs using the same skills she used to create the illustrations in her upcoming picture book, Desert Lake: The Story of Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre. They printed, painted, patterned, collaged, drew and cut out bugs to add to a very large mural background from her book. By the end of the festival and the April School Holidays, it will be full of handmade bugs and critters.

Before:

The children got very creative. 

Once their bugs were constructed and cut out, they added them to the mural.

After:

While the kids were busy, I got busy too - sticky breaking at Liz's exhibition. It's based on a book written by Pamela Freeman and published by Walker Books. It's one book in a Nature Story series. 

The exhibition is a reflection of Liz's research journey around the Central Australian Outback.

The collection is full of Liz's sketches created while she visited Lake Eyre. 

The colours and textures she portrays are amazing.

This exhibition will be formally launched in the 

Lovett Gallery at Newcastle Library on 

Friday, 8th April at 5:30pm. 

Everyone is welcome. 

Please RSVP via https://www.eventbrite.com.au

MacLean's Booksellers have also finished setting up their Pop-up Kids Festival Bookshop in the Newcastle Library. The array of books displayed is scrumptious! 

Time for bed. We have one of the largest days of the festival for school groups tomorrow. I look forward to sharing it with you tomorrow night.

Oh and I will be doing my very first author talk at a writers festival tomorrow too. I'm nervous but very excited to have the opportunity to have some fun with the kids while wearing my author hat. Wish me luck!

National Centre for Australian Children's Literature Inc.

During a family holiday to Canberra recently, I took the opportunity to visit the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature. 

My family visit minus one (my Lara was at home unwell)

'What is this?' I hear you ask. It's located in the library of the University of Canberra and is formally known as The Lu Rees Archives. I see some of you are now nodding your head. For the rest of you here are some detail from their website:

About the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature

The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature (formerly The Lu Rees Archives) is a comprehensive collection of books and other resources about authors, illustrators, publishers and their creative works. The collection includes over 28,000 books, with some 3,800 of these in overseas translations in 53 languages, over 450 research files, and significant collections of authors', illustrators' and publishers' papers, manuscripts and artwork. The resources are publicly available, and visitors are welcome during opening hours.

The mission of the Centre is to enhance the appreciation of Australian children's literature by collecting, preserving and making available wide-ranging resources through programs, events and exhibitions. Lu Rees, the founding President of the ACT Branch of The Children's Book Council of Australia proposed in 1974 that there should be a collection of research files about Australian children's authors and illustrators together with a collection of their books. In 1980 this collection was deposited at the University of Canberra Library so it could be publicly available. The Centre is an incorporated body in the ACT, with a Board which includes the Management Subcommittee and the Foundation Subcommittee.

The ACT Branch provides a small donation annually and volunteer support. The University of Canberra Library houses the collection, catalogues the books, and provides materials to support the collection. The University has designated the Centre as an Affliate, and provides insurance coverage. Australian publishers donate their children's books as they are published.

left to right: Prof. Belle Alderman, Katrina McKelvey, Belinda Gamlen and my beautiful Aidan (front).
Aidan was as interested in the collection as I was. He loved seeing original illustrations.

During our visit we were accompanied by the lovely Professor Belle Alderman (Director) and Belinda Gamlen. Their passion was evident as they showed us the collection of rare books, carefully stored and displayed original illustrations, and original manuscripts with scribbles all over them (I viewed one written by Graeme Base - lucky me!). 

I read a letter from Leigh Hobbs to his editor - it was a classic - just a spare piece of paper with a few thoughts scrawled on it with a texta - I'm sure he didn't plan on me reading it, but I found it mesmerising! 

Leigh Hobbs' original illustrations and letters to his editor

I also got to see some of Lu Rees' medals including her MBE (Member of the British Empire). I'd never seen one before. So precious!

Rows and rows of books, all carefully catalogued, filled the space. It was an insane but divine sensory overload. 

Just some of the rows of books in this collection

Rare and precious books. I was too scared to touch them!

More shelving ...

... and more shelving! 

I found our tour a rich and rewarding experience. If I had the time, I would have pulled up a piece of carpet and soaked up every single piece.

If you would like to know more about the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature, you can subscribe to their newsletters by emailing editor Lynn Fletcher at lynnfletcher@ozemail.com.au. Past newsletters can be viewed here.

The centre has big plans for the future of the collection. Plans include more space for displaying original illustrations, more school visits to the centre as part of school Canberra excursions, and more university students using the centre's resources to assist with their children's literature studies. 

The centre is always in need of help. You can do so by volunteering or making a monetary donation. 

'Wish Lists of Books We Need' is a link to a list of books missing from the collection. If you love going hunting for old treasured books, keep your eye out for one of the books on this list. Your donation would be vital in completing smaller collections within the centre. 

Pixie O'Harris Glassware - Australian illustrator of The Wind in the Willows. Glassware available for sale.
At the moment I'm drinking my tea from a glass mug etched with one of Pixie's illustrations.
I love drinking tea from a glass.

This collection could not be available without the support of the CBCA ACT Branch, the University of Canberra, Prof. Belle Alderman, and the many volunteers behind the scenes. It was apparent to me during our visit, they keep the collection well funded, organised and readily available to the public, many hours of work is needed. I was extremely impressed by the level of organisation and the friendliness of Belle and her staff (my visit was on their first day back after their Christmas/New Year break).

Belle and I having a laugh

I highly recommend a visit to the centre. Belle was very accommodating. She even sent me a very comprehensive set of driving directions beforehand, and gave me a copy of their publication, 'Showcasing Treasures' which you can purchase here. I was invited to sign the visitors book and I was impressed by some of the recent visitors - you know who you are :)

I was honoured to add my first picture book to this collection - to be alongside all of the current children's literature book creators and all the ones that have gone before me. It's actually quite difficult to comprehend having a book I authored in a collection that will be protected for as long as possible, to be seen as part of something so special it must be guarded, to be part of Australian history. 

Katrina McKelvey donating a signed copy of 'Dandelions', published by EK Books,
to the collection. This copy was signed by Kirrili Lonergan too.

This collection is the beginning of something magical. Our family visited A LOT of museums, galleries and collections during our Canberra holiday, and this children's literature collection is just a important and special. I look forward to seeing it continue to grow and thrive. 

In the words of Bob Graham, 2010:

'The Lu Rees Archives has become a vital resource in the preservation of or children's literature. And long may it continue.'

And in the words of Morris Gleitzman:

'At last. Immortality!'

Portrait of Lu Rees by Annette Macarthur - Onslow