Our Summer Reading Challenge

By Gemma Wilson and Tanya Priest-Willimott, Junior School Teacher Librarians

Another successful Summer Reading Challenge has occurred in the Junior School. We recently had authors Jane Godwin and Nat Amoore visit us to celebrate.

Jane is a prolific author, having written more than 20 picture books and a few chapter books, and Nat is the author of four chapter books. Both visits were a great opportunity for our students to engage with talented authors who shared the stories behind their books and inspired our students to dream widely and pursue their own writing aspirations.

Jane spoke to Pre-Kinder to Year 3 students about picture books. She explained the story behind her book Tilly. Her sister really did put some treasure in a box under some stairs, and then the stairs were carpeted over. Jane’s family think the treasure is still there!

One of Jane’s books written in 2022, Polly’s Grand Party Plan, was announced just last week as a CBCA Notable book. We may see it on the short list for Book Week!

Nat Amoore spoke to Year 4, 5 and 6 students last week. She is a loud, energetic person who thinks grown-ups are boring! Nat thinks she has the best job in the world as she gets to hang out with kids, sign books and talk about writing.

Nat had our students rolling around with laughter as she told stories and lies, asking the students to guess which one was the truth and which was a lie. Of course, we were all tricked. Nat demonstrated that by embellishing a story and adding details, character personalities and descriptions, stories seem alive in our minds. Nat’s stories have such detail about characters, settings and events that everyone loves them. Nat was also looking for the most interesting question from a student – not just the boring ones! Some of the interesting questions were:

• Which book would you turn into a movie?
• If you were a character in one of your books, which one would you be?
• Would you kill off a character in one of your books?

The Summer Reading Challenge was another great way to keep everyone reading over our long break. We hope your families discovered some new titles and shared some good books together.

Thank you to the Junior School staff and leadership team for supporting these visits and for building on the excitement in the classrooms.