It was a big day for Anne, our driver, who covered lots of extra kilometres as she dropped us each off in turn, then circled back to pick us all up again (without forgetting anyone!) and also had to cope with a massive thunderstorm as we headed into Christchurch at about 4pm, and rush-hour traffic on the way over to Burnside High School. (At least we didn't get the golf-ball sized hail stones that were hitting Timaru.) Anne was our navigation and timetabling guru for keeping us on time and on track. The rest of us had to constantly consult our itineraries to work out which school we were going to, what time our talk was and when we were being picked up again.
My first school on Wednesday was Sefton School, another lovely school that is obviously given strong support by its local community. Lots more great questions from the kids here.
... followed by a shared talk with Paula to Rangiora Borough School Y6 students at the Rangiora Library, and a visit to Woodend School in the afternoon. I like to read something out loud if there's time, so I did that at the end of my session at Woodend School. The kids all lay down on the carpet and looked so relaxed that I felt like lying down too! When I'd finished, one student said, "Did you really write that? It was amazing!"
Meanwhile Vasanti, Paula and Eileen visited Waipara School, Ashley School, West Eyreton School, Kaiapoi High School students at the Kaiapoi Library and Leithfield School. You can see what a mission it is to line up all those schools and libraries and work out an itinerary that fits them all in, so thanks again to Storylines for making that happen.
Thanks also to the many wonderful school and public librarians we met through our tour, who do such an incredible job of making books accessible and enticing to their school and local communities. At Rangiora Library, we were even given a copy of the latest issue of Catalyst, produced one by one of their librarians. The Burnside High School librarians were equally hospitable in sharing their space with us and hosting the evening talk. It was great for all of us to have a chance to hear each other speak - also very nice to see that Burnside High had my Antarctic book on their New Books display - right next to Greta!
More excellent questions:
- When did your passion come for writing?
- Were you good at writing or did you practise?
- Were you forced to do writing as a child?
- Who is your biggest critic?
- Do your family get to read your books first?
- What was the worst part of your career?
- Do you get help from other people?
- How do you know if your ideas are good enough?
- Is it fun writing for all ages?
- What was your hardest book to write?
I often get asked Which is your favourite book (that you've written). But - Which is your least favourite book????
It's hard to answer either question! I often answer the first by saying it's like asking their teacher to choose his or her favourite student. There can be some hilarious responses to that!
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