Creative writing workshops at Katherine Mansfield Birthplace

Thanks to the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace for hosting another series of school holiday creative writing workshops. There is something very special about sitting in a room of the house where KM was born, surrounded by photographs and memorabilia of her life, and talking to a group of young people who might be the writers of the next generation.

The Year 6-8 students did some great work on Writing Arresting Openings. We talked about the different ways they could start a story to try and grab the reader from the very first sentence. We chose a story that we thought that many of them would know, and set them the challenge of coming up with an alternative opening.  Here are some of the wonderful first sentences they produced for a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood:

• It all started on the edge of the dark woods.


• "AARGH!" screamed the wolf as the woodchopper swung his bloody hatchet.


• "Don't go through the forest," said her mother. "Whatever," said Little Red Riding Hood.


• "Lunch," thought the Wolf, licking his lips.


• I sat waiting in the woods, listening. I heard a snap. I looked and saw a flash of red. It was a small girl carrying a basket.


• Once upon a time there was a little girl who should have taken the bus.


• I was cutting wood one day when a small girl in a red hood passed by.


• Once, long, long ago, there was a hood, and not just any hood. This one was of a dark blood-red colour.


• I'm sure you've all heard of Little Red Riding Hood. The sweet girl everyone loves? Well, let me tell you now, those are LIES.

And finally:

• Her cracked leather boots caught the sunlight escaping through the greenery, warming her sore feet and crooked toes. A bruise was forming on her leg where her treat-filled basket bumped against it. The journey was wearing her down, a sign that a hungry wolf noticed from his hidden point in the book.

I love the way that these students are already confident enough in their writing to play around with telling the story from different perspectives. They each  have their own way of handling language and ideas, setting, dialogue and description, and creating an individual narrative voice.

Great work!

Katherine Mansfield and the Wellington storm

The storm that just swept through Wellington brought down power lines and trees - a lovely one just opposite our house, ripped off roofs, scoured out railway lines, sent waves crashing across roads, demolished sea walls and generally caused a heap of damage. A week before, we'd been watching the film on the sinking of the Wahine at the Museum of Wellington City and Sea. Thankfully there was no such tragedy this time, although one of the ferries spent what must have been an uncomfortable day out in the harbour, monitored by a small watchful tugboat, until it could be safely moored again.

Sadly, it seems that one of the houses that has suffered the greatest damage is a small seaside cottage in Day's Bay, once owned by the Beauchamp family, where Katherine Mansfield (then Kathleen Beauchamp) used to spend holidays as a child.

A few years ago, I went on a Day's Bay literary walk, led by Don Long, who took us round to see a number of houses in the area owned by past or present writers. One of them was this wee cottage, and the owners kindly let us have a look inside. You can read more about the house on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust website.

Today's paper reports that it has been so badly pummelled by the waves, it may be a write-off.

Don commented presciently that "the waves still sometimes break against – virtually over – the house on Downes’ Point during storms." He explained that Sir Harold Beauchamp bought the land in 1906, and it was Kathleen’s "bolt-hole" from then until she left for London in July 1908, aged 19. Memories of it stayed with her forever and infused her writing of one of her most famous stories, "At the Bay". You can read it online here, thanks to the Katherine Mansfield Society.

On 4 March 1908, Kathleen wrote, “The sea has never seemed so high – so fierce.  It dashes against the rocks with a sound like thunder.”

 

 

Writers in Schools: Ngaio School

Thanks to Ngaio School for a great visit last week with the NZ Book Council Writers in Schools scheme. We lived in Ngaio when we came back to New Zealand after several years away, and our first child was there so I have many fond memories of pushing her pushchair up and down its hilly roads.

Year Threes and Fours - I loved how you were such good listeners - and I loved all your questions! - especially these ones:

• Have you ever travelled anywhere that has inspired you to write? (I'm still pondering that one. I travelled a lot when I was younger and I think it has influenced my writing, but it's hard to say exactly how.)


• What text type do you prefer?


• Did you like writing when you were little?


• Do you know any other New Zealand authors?


• Closely followed by - Have you met Roald Dahl? (Sadly, no. But I have been to the Roald Dahl Museum in England, where you can see things like his artificial hip bone, re-used as a handle for a filing cabinet.)


• Have you ever written a book with anyone else? (Not since I was about eight or nine. But it would be an interesting experience!)

Thanks again, Ngaio School, and good luck with your reading and writing for the rest of the year.

Strange fruit

I've already mentioned this installation by Donna Sarten, currently on display at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts on Queen's Wharf.But now I've been to see it as well, and I loved it.

It consists of 3890 military "dog tags", most of them individually stamped with a soldier's name and ID number, although some are blank because of missing information or to represent those men who, for various reasons, might not want to be identified. Some are cut in half, to show the men who died.

On the other side of the silver dog tags are pictures of red pomegranates. One of the things I liked about this exhibition was learning that the word for pomegranate in French is "pomme grenade", which gives us our word "grenade", perhaps because the two objects - fruit and weapon - are similar shaped. But whereas one contains seeds, the other holds tiny balls of shrapnel. The comparison is even more ironic given that the pomegranate is an ancient symbol of fertility, whereas the grenade is a symbol of suffering and death.

The dog tags are suspended - at approximately but not exactly the same height - by red threads from a meshwork grid near the ceiling.One side is a silver shimmer as it catches the light. On the other side, the red of the pomegranates and the hanging threads remind you of dripping blood, or the tint of a sunset sky, but of rich fruitfulness as well.

Each dog tag stands for an individual (the NZ soldiers who served in Vietnam), but together they make up one big group that nudges you to think of the wider groups beyond these names: the families that sent them and waited for them to return. They also make you ponder on how often disasters and wars are summarised in lists of casualties and combatants, but how people are more than just numbers.

And although I saw it indoors, it has also been shown outdoors, as here at the NZ Sculpture OnShore 2010 exhibition:

Anzac Day: the day after

I love the fact that people are continuing to find new and creative ways of marking Anzac Day and the days leading up to it.

Here in Wellington, instead of just handing over poppies on Poppy Day, a host of volunteers spent hours planting them on Midland Park so people could pick their own poppy in return for a donation.

 

At the NZ Academy of Fine Arts on Queen's Wharf, Donna Sarten's installation Strange Fruit uses 3890 military dog tags suspended from the ceiling (each one stamped with the veteran's name and number) to show the number of New Zealanders who went to Vietnam.



I read about restaurants and movie theatres offering Anzac Day discounts to veterans, and Wellington even hosted a historic game of ARL football: St Kilda vs Sydney Swans (the first ever AFL clash played outside of Australia as part of the premiership season) which included the presentation of the Simpson-Henderson Trophy, honouring the stretcher-bearer heroes of Gallipoli.



In our family, we managed to attend Anzac Day services in three different countries. My sister and her husband got up at 3am to drive into central Sydney for the dawn service at 4.15am. I'm so proud of them (and also of my nephew who attended as well)- what a big effort to make!

One daughter is in New Caledonia on a school French trip, and the students were invited to join the Anzac Day service in Noumea - a very special occasion, as it was also being attended by 84 New Zealand WW2 veterans, there to mark the 70th anniversary of New Zealand's involvement in the Pacific war.

Meanwhile we went to our own local Anzac Day service, attended by adults, children and babies, Brownies, Guides and Scouts, St John's - and even a neighbourhood cat which wandered in and and seemed quite at home.

It has been a busy few weeks, with two book launches, several school visits and a number of interviews. But I am so grateful to everyone who has bought a copy of Anzac Day: the New Zealand story, for themselves or to give away. Thanks for helping put the book on the best seller list for the last 6 weeks (including one week at number one!) And thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to tell me - in person or by email - that they've enjoyed it, or to share with me their own family stories of involvement in war.

Here are a few places you can go to see, hear or read more about the book:

• Radio New Zealand: Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan, Tuesday 23 April 2013.

(Thanks to Kathryn and the rest of the Nine to Noon team for making this live interview as stress-free as possible!)

• Breakfast TV, Anzac Day (Thursday 25 April)

"Brooke Dobson speaks with author Philippa Werry about her new book, 'Anzac Day, The New Zealand Story'."

• Teaching kids about Anzac Day - interview with Kate Geenty for the Essential Mums section of the Stuff website (not just for Essential Mums!)


• Marking Anzac Day as a family - guest blog for Kiwi families.

Anzac Day: the New Zealand story book launch x 1

Thanks to everyone - friends, family and members of the writing community who came along to one of the two book launches for my new book Anzac Day: the New Zealand story.

The Wellington book launch was very kindly hosted last Thursday by John and Ruth McIntyre of the wonderful Children's Bookshop in Kilbirnie, and Stephen Clarke, Chief Executive of the RSA, did the honours of formally introducing the book.


John and Ruth McIntyre


Stephen Clarke, Chief Executive of the RSA




My lovely daughter Lizzie doing a reading

Wellington Writers Walk

Since its opening in 2002, the Wellington Writers Walk has become one of the showpieces of the city, honouring local writers and proving a fascinating addition to the urban landscape.



On Thursday 21 March, the harbour was sparkling, the waterfront was crowded with people enjoying the balmy sunshine - it was a perfect evening for the unveiling of Stage IV of the walk. Four new benchmark sculptures have now been added to the existing 19 works, making a total of 23 authors whose work is celebrated in this way.

Speeches in Circa Theatre included one from Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae who is joint patron of the Writers Walk with his wife, Lady Janine.


L to R: Sir James McNeish, Elizabeth Knox, Joy Cowley, Jack Lasenby

Invited guests and members of the public then walked to each new plaque in turn for its unveiling. First was Sir James McNeish, whose benchmark is situated on the bridge behind Te Papa leading to Waitangi Park and Chaffers Marina. Elizabeth Knox’s benchmark was unveiled at a temporary spot before being installed near the Meridian Energy Building, Customhouse Quay, in front of Michael Tuffery’s kina sculpture. (Breakfast TV did a live cross to cover this on Monday 25 March.)

Joy Cowley’s benchmark is on the lower walkway, quite close to the Katherine Mansfield plaque (you might need to lean over the fence to see it.) Reading out her quotation, Joy commented how people complain about the Wellington southerly, but forget to praise the gorgeous day that often follows it.


Joy Cowley with Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae and his wife, Lady Janine

Jack Lasenby’s quotation is placed sideways on a pole near the Wharewaka. Jack declared that he was sure the local seagulls – one of which obligingly came and perched on top of the pole - would now be flying around with cricked necks as a result.




Jack Lasenby in front of his vertical quotation that will prove a trap for literary seagulls

Sponsors of the new quotations are The Todd Corporation for James McNeish, The Deane Foundation for Elizabeth Knox, Mark and Wendy McGuinness for Jack Lasenby and Jenny Morel, Allan Bollard and Penguin Books for Joy Cowley.

This was a great event, bringing together many writers and members of the literary community to celebrate and enjoy what is a very special part of our city. It has been an exciting couple of years for the Writers Walk, which also featured at the Frankfurt Book Fair and launched a wonderful new website and Facebook page.

Thanks to Rosemary Wildblood (Chair of the Wellington Writers Walk Committee)  for the lovely photos.

Wellington on a good day

As they say, you can't beat Wellington on a good day - and there have been a string of them lately.



One of the best was on Thursday - the official last day of summer (but it seems to be continuing!) when a pod of dolphins came into the harbour. This video was put together by Ro Tierney who also made the beautiful short film Snow on Cuba St, back in 2011 - seems hard to believe with this weather we're enjoying at the moment.

Takahe Book Club

A big thank you to the Takahe Book Club at Brooklyn School who invited me to talk to them last week. These are Year 5 and 6 students who have been meeting regularly through the year to read and talk about books. It's great to see kids who are such keen readers. They could all tell me what they'd read and a couple of them arrived late, still reading as they walked in.

They had also prepared some questions and halfway round the circle I had to stop and grab paper and pen to write some of them down. Being given a question that you've never been asked before is a real gift because it always makes you think more about your own writing. So here are some of the great questions they asked:

• What does it feel like to have a book published?


• If you weren't an author, what do you think your life would be like?


• Do you prefer writing books where you make everything up or where you do research?


• Is writing a book ever boring?


• How easy is it to make up your characters?


• What would you like a reader to think about your books?


• How important is it to have the right name for your characters?

- Not to forget the random question about fish!

I thought these were especially interesting questions because they showed a real grasp of the nature of writing and what it's like to be a writer (and a reader).

So Adam, Hunter, Emma, Michael, Olivia, Shaam, Chloe, Joseph, Jonny, Jessica, Shea, Yusi, Amit, Emma, Xanthe, James, Anna and maybe a few more who couldn't be there today - thank you again (and for your card and gift); it was a treat to come and talk to you all, and I hope you get lots of good reading down over the summer holidays!

 

 

 

Two bulls, three pianos

On display for just one month at Te Papa is Michael Parekowhai's amazing installation titled On first looking into Chapman's Homer.

It's hard to describe in a way that does it justice, but it is breath-taking. Here's an attempt: it's a genuine Steinway grand piano, astonishingly red and intricately carved all over including the lid, flanked by two bronze pianos on top of which  are two incredibly life-like and life-size bulls, one standing and pawing the ground, one sitting.



Just after I arrived, two men wandered into the gallery. I don't think they were expecting to see it, because they looked surprised, then confused, then even more surprised and more confused. One of themn sidled over to the gallery attendant and asked, "What does this piece of art mean?" She replied with great aplomb, 'What does any piece of art mean?"



I'd read Mark Amery's review in the Dominion Post which really helped me relate to this work, especailly the references to the river and the landforms as viewed from the the water.

People can book a time to come and play the grand piano. When I was there, a man arrived, sat down and started to play Tom Lehrer's song "The elements", listing all the elements of the periodic table (at least as known in 1959, up to no 102), which made it seem even more surreal.

He also played another Tom Lehrer tune: 'Poisoning pigeons in the park'!

But there are also concerts on every day at 12.30 and it's on display until the 23rd - only a few more days now!

 

Writers' and Readers' Week at WEGC

Last week I was invited to come and talk at the Writers' and Readers' Week held by Wellington East Girls' College to celebrate the re-opening of their library space.

I say "library space" rather than "new library", because Wellington East Girls' College (WEGC) has had its share of difficulties lately since the main block was found to be substantially below current safety standards for earthquake risk. The library was of course in the main block which is now closed. It's a beautiful old building so we all hope it can be saved. At night when it's lit up, it sails like a ship over the heights of Mt Victoria.

Both staff and students have had to be adaptable and resilient in dealing with a situation that has put stress on everyone. And the girls and teachers must be getting very fit when they often have to walk from the classrooms in the lower village all the way up to the new prefabs on the top field.

The library has had a whole year of homeless-ness, with the librarians using creative and innovative ways of bringing the mobile 'Library-2-U' but they now have an actual room, so the re-opening (to coincide with Readers' and Writers' Week) featured a week of events including a ribbon-cutting and opening ceremony, speeches and a book quiz. The girls were great to talk to and I really enjoyed my session.

One of the things I talked about (and read) was the story I submitted for the BNZ Young Writers' Award when I was in fifth form (now Year 11) at New Plymouth Girls' High School. It was Highly Commended and I told the girls that reading the judge's report, by Noel Hilliard, was the first time I had ever had any kind of contact with a real live writer.

The story is called Creation and you can find it on my website. I hadn't read it out loud before, because usually I talk to younger children at Writers in Schools visits to primary and intermediate schools. I thought afterwards that I should have warned them that they might be a bit confused for the first page or two (handwritten of course, no computers)  but that hopefully all would become clear, and I think it did.

I hope they're enjoying their new library space. And cheers to all school librarians who do such a great job (not always under such difficult circumstances.)

The (wonderful) Children's Bookshop, Kilbirnie

Birthday parties are always special, but how often do you get invited to a birthday party for a bookshop?

Twenty years ago, two people with little or no knowledge of bookselling opened up a small shop on a back alleyway in the Kilbirnie shopping centre and at the end of that day were part relieved, part exhilarated to realise they had made $250 worth of sales. Last night, a big and convivial crowd gathered in the shop (a bigger one, but still in the same alleyway)  to help John and Ruth McIntyre celebrate the 20th birthday of the wonderful Children's Bookshop. 

 

The bookshop was looking as fabulous as ever, with posters around the walls - reaching almost to the ceiling - and enticing book displays, set off by big bunches of congratulatory flowers on the counter. And the crowd inside reflected the wide range of people who value this bookshop so highly, including many local authors, illustrators and storytellers, other booksellers, school librarians and teachers, publishers' reps and staff, both past and present.

Annette King, who is a "neighbour" as well as local MP (her electorate office is right next door) began the speeches with a heartfelt tribute to all John and Ruth's hard work and their many awards and achievements over the last 20 years. She quoted from the article in the Dominion Post, describing them as "unsung heroes of Wellington", and said how true that was, but that we were there today to sing their praises. She also commented that whenever people weren't sure how to find her office, she simply had to say it was "next to The Children's Bookshop" and they would immediately be able to locate it.

Heidi talked on behalf of the staff, telling Ruth and John how wonderful they were to work for, and read out warm messages from others who couldn't be there, including David Hill and Diana Neild. Julia Marshall described the advice she'd been given by John when she was considering starting up Gecko Press, and pointed out how many other people have benefited from their helpful and wise suggestions. One of the publishers' reps described the bookshop as a "haven" in their busy day, and  one of their favourite places to visit (especially at morning tea time!)

But the star turn was undoubtedly Kate McIntyre, who has grown up with the shop - as she pointed out, it is only a few months older than she is. She told us that she'd only scribbled down a few notes an hour earlier, but she kept the audience captivated as she talked about what it had meant to her growing up with the bookshop as a second home, meeting world- famous authors, giving advice to book-buying customers as an eight-year-old and hanging out with the staff until she started proper "work" there at the age of about 15.

Finally John said a few words, and then there there was more wine and juice and deliveries of pizza, and lots more talk and a buzz of congratulations and admiration.

It was a great evening and a well-deserved celebration, with several themes that came through most of the speeches.  One was the quality of the staff whom John and Ruth have chosen and mentored, and how much they contribute to the bookshop's success, with their own wide reading enabling them to give valuable and reliable recommendations to  customers trying to choose the right book.

Another theme that emerged was is that it is all very well to set out to follow your dream, but a dream involves a lot of hard work and determination to make it succeed, and that's what Ruth and John have in bucketfuls.

So if you haven't been there for a while, make a visit and buy a book to celebrate their success and to wish them well for the next 20 years!

Walking home by Simon Armitage

Some years ago, I heard Simon Armitage when he was in Wellington for Writers and Readers Week, and bought his book All points north straight afterwards. Lately I've been enjoying his latest book,Walking home (sub-titled Travels with a troubadour on the Pennine way.) Simon Armitage is an English poet who came up with the idea of walking the Pennine Way north to south - against the prevailing weather conditions, and the usual direction of walking it - with the intention of finishing near his childhood home, a village called Marsden on the edge of the the Peak District. The idea was that the humiliation of failing to make Marsden would act as a spur to completing the 256- mile walk.

The trouble with many travel books is that they can be very self-absorbed. The writer makes it sound as though they are the only one exploring this fascinating part of the world, whereas if you've been there yourself, you know perfectly well that it must be swarming with other tourists. That's why I enjoy reading travel writers like Bill Bryson who can season their work with a lot of self-deprecating humour and write about fairly ordinary places while making them sound fascinating.

And that's why I'm really enjoying this book, because Simon Armitage is constantly poking gentle fun at himself and the whole idea of a 'travelling poet" (a big part of his expedition involved giving poetry readings each night) but his focus is usually outward, at the scenery, and the weather, and birds and flowers and geology, and the people he meets en route who take on board the "travelling poet" idea, offer him hospitality, organise the readings and become part of the whole project.

When we lived in England, we did a lot of walking in the Lake District, and also embarked on a misguided attempt to complete the  Coast to Coast walk in March. (It ended halfway across in a blizzard, so I can sympathise with some of Simon Armitage's descriptions of the inclement weather he encountered, even in summer.) We still have a couple of Alfred Wainwright's guides  - A pictorial guide to the Lakeland fells is one I've just picked off the bookshelf, Book Seven - the Western fells, crammed full of Wainwright's trademark maps and detailed drawings. So I'm also enjoying the language of the place names which are condensed poetry in themselves (from just one day's trek: Billysbeck bridge, High Cup Gill, Maize Beck, Meldon Hill, Birkdale Farm, the Cauldron Snout waterfall and the cliffs of Falcon Clints) as well as relishing the unusual and wonderful vocabulary he employs.

I also admire his determination to stick to his own rules, reading his poems in all sorts of venues after a long day's walk, when he must have been exhausted and yearning to hide away in a quiet place by himself.

 

The book is also peppered with references to other journeys, and other travelling poets - Wordsworth, the great walker, and Odysseus of course - and with occasional anecdotes that tell the stories behind some of the poems he reads, like "Causeway". Altogether it's a lovely mixture of travel book, memoir and poetry. I'm getting to the end of it now and I'll be sorry to come to the end of the journey.

Margaret Mahy Readathon Saturday

Our Margaret Mahy Readathon at Brooklyn library on Saturday morning was an absolutely charming event.

Eirlys Hunter dressed up as a most splendid-looking pirate to read The man whose mother was a pirate.



She also provided a pot of bubble mixture, and the bubbles kept the children enchanted while she read Bubble trouble (a tongue-twister of a poem which both Eirlys and I can remember having once heard Margaret recite off by heart.) It's interesting to hear that bubbles also featured in a number of other Margaret Mahy readathon events.



There was a small boy who roared convincingly during the reading of A lion in the meadow, and we were also lucky enough to have a mother in the audience who had grown up in Christchurch and used to hear stories read by Margaret during Storytime at the Public Library. What a wonderful memory to have.



We tried to explain to the children gathered to listen (and they were very good listeners) that they were part of a very special occasion, paying tribute to - and just enjoying - the fabulous, funny and magical writing of Margaret Mahy. And it certainly felt like a special occasion for us, knowing that all over the country, other people were also reading and listening to these wonderful books.

 

 

Librarian's choice

One of the (many) good things about libraries is the serendipity they can bring to your reading, often as a result of scanning the shelves of recently returned or recommended books. I was thinking about this recently when we were on holiday with a group of friends. Everyone had brought books to read, and we would talk about what we were reading and pass the books around. There was also a big selection of books available on an e-reader - but somehow that's not the same as being able to look at the cover, read the blurb and handle the book itself to get an idea of whether you'd like to read it.

At Central Library in Wellington, there's always a display of books in the Fiction section under Librarian's choice and Reader's choice. (Actually, I'm not totally sure where the apostrophe goes: one librarian and one reader, or more than one? I'll have to check it out next time.) I'd always assumed that some care went into selecting the books to go on here, but last weekend I was standing by the display shelves when a librarian came along and starting slinging books on, some at one end and some at the other, with no apparent pattern. Of course, perhaps there was a hidden pattern that I couldn't see, but from now on I will have to assume that the Librarian's and Reader's choice are often overlapping.

One of the books I picked off the shelves was Evelyn Waugh's Scoop.



Evelyn Waugh is always worth re-reading, although I'd forgotten how casually he uses terms to describe black people that would nowadays be seen as deeply offensive. It means that there's often an uncomfortable edge to the humour (being Evelyn Waugh, he probably wouldn't care) apart from the scenes set in England, especially in the environs of Boot Magna, where the worst crisis imaginable is the accidental substitution of "the crested grebe" for "the badger" in a newspaper's nature column, leading to wonderfully funny lines like these ones :

'He might bluff it out. Lord Copper was a townsman, a provincial townsman at that, and certainly did not know the difference between  a badger and a great crested grebe... "Lord Copper," he was saying [in his imagination] , "no man shall call me a liar unchastised. The great crested grebe does hibernate."'

Red rocks by Rachael King

Dreamy, imaginative Jake is the main character in Rachael King’s new children’s novel Red rocks. Set in and around Owhiro Bay on Wellington’s south coast, this book translates the selkie legend – of the seal that comes ashore in human form - into a local setting of wind and sea, cliffs, rocks and "talking stones".

It overlays the contemporary and specific (Forest and Bird, Greenpeace, the Empire cinema in Island Bay and phrases like "whatever") with a sense of what is timeless (the landscape, the sea, only one computer, no TV or cellphones.) The language is rich, warm and slightly mysterious, like the cover, and the seals themselves are beautifully described as they gambol in the waves and kelp, or dive into the water like a "silky missile".



I wasn’t sure at first how old Jake was supposed to be. When he first meets Jessie, he calls her a "little girl... no more than ten", but Jake himself is still young enough to be told to "go and play" by his dad. He says he can hardly remember what it was like when his parents were still together, but a photograph taken soon after they split up is only two summers old. Perhaps he is about 12, no older, and he often seems younger, but there is a close relationship between Jake and his dad, with whom he is spending the school holidays. I was also pleased to see that the Island Bay community looked out for a boy on his own in the dark after the movie finished!

Rachael King has said that the idea for the book came to her as she walked her first baby son around Wellington’s wild south coast and thought it a place where magic could happen. "We could all use a little bit of magic in our lives, don’t you think?" says Jake’s dad, and this is a story of enchantment, but also of a boy finding the inner strength to solve problems, fight bullies, protect his family and conquer his fear.

One small note: Ted shouldn’t really be fishing out in front of his shack in Owhiro Bay, or even around the other side of the island, as both places fall well within the Taputeranga marine reserve where no fishing is allowed.

Other things I can remember about Wadestown School...

Prompted both by my recent school visit, and by the book Windows over Wadestown by Debbie Monigatti which the school was kind enough to send me afterwards, here are a few more memories I have of my days at the school, when English was called "Written Expression" and we covered our books with wallpaper, not duraseal:

• Lining up in the top playground for outdoor assembly, and the boys always trying to be last in line


• Learning to swim in the freezing cold outdoor swimming pool


• Being allowed to move from pencil to fountain pen (which was supposed to be a privilege, but involved a lot more mess)


• Being tested on our spelling levels


• Doing folk dancing in the bottom playground, to the accompaniment of wobbly music from a record player, and putting on a performance of A midsummer night's dream for parents in the area outside the pool


• My wonderful Std 4 and Form 1 teacher, Mrs Kroell (you can see a photo of her on pg 65 of Debbie Monigatti's book) who took us on a school trip to Mt Egmont (as it was then)


• Going to the "murder house" on the bus to be practised on by student dental nurses


• Going to "manual" on the bus - cooking and sewing for the girls, woodwork and metalwork for the boys Now called 'technicraft' and under threat from the current government. Here's hoping this important tradition continues.


• The rows of bike racks - now there is a shed full of scooters


• The local minister from St Lukes who used to come in and give us religious instruction lessons once a week (and once a year we would go to the flower show with our sand saucers and flower arrangements)


• Barbara, Susan, Kirsten, Katrina, another Barbara, Michelle, Sally, Michael, Jonathan, John, Paul, ....

Sun bears and school visits

There is something both energizing and exhausting about doing school visits. It is definitely tiring to talk to four, five or even six groups of children over a school day, constantly monitoring for signs of interest or boredom so as to adjust what you are saying, choosing books or stories to read or talk about that are going to interest them.
But the rewards are so worthwhile: getting asked a question you've never been asked before, having a class of rapt faces in front of you or seeing their faces light up when you hold up a particular title. For nearly every class at my last school visit - even the older ones - the "light up" title was "Sun bears are special".

This is a Ready to read book that I wrote in 2002. It's about the sun bear twins, Madu and Arataki, that were born at Wellington Zoo some years ago, and it's a sad story in some ways because one of them (Madu) died at two years old because he was born with a hole in his heart, but for some reason it just seems to resonate with and appeal to children.

As for the questions I was asked, the best one was definitely "were you a good girl at school?" and the new entrants were keen to know "how many letters in a book?"

The great chocolate cake bake-off: a great review!

A few days ago, I did a school visit to Wadestown School where the students were in the middle of Book Week, all coordinated by their wonderful librarian, Derek Piper, who was having long days and sleepless nights as he organised bookmark and poster competitions, speakers, a book fair and a dress-up-as-a-favourite book character parade - including getting his own costume ready.

One of the highlights for me was seeing this very clever review of my book The great chocolate cake bake-off by Wadestown School pupil Elizabeth Crowe:



"This must be one of the best reviews I have ever had - thanks, Elizabeth!"