Pre-dinner story time
This evening, I was about to start making dinner, I got a Facetime call from my 4 year old nephew. He was wanting a story, and this is something I'm always happy to do (my nephews know that I'll drop just about anything to read them stories). The first story requested...
What I’ve Read – May 2021
May was another quiet month for reading. I read two more Clive books, Clive is a Nurse and Clive is a Teacher. These were great books, showing Clive and his friends caring for patients and teaching students. It's great to see boys in roles that are less traditional...
Inspiring Young Writers
For a number of years, I've been running a Young Writers Group with the Monash Library in Mount Waverley. I have so much fun with the young writers and so do they. Sometimes I'm not sure who is having more fun - me or them! Yesterday was no different. We had a fun...
What I’ve Read – April 2021
April was a quieter month - on the reading front at least... One picture book, two middle grade books, and a novel on audiobook was was total, Can a Princess be a Firefighter? by Carole P. Roman was a cute picture book about an unconventional princess. Dinosaur Cove:...
What I’ve Read – March 2021
It's no joke, it's April! March was a month for some brilliant picture books with some authors I discovered from the US and UK. I have been looking for books that feature boys in careers and roles that not stereotypical roles for boys as I have a son going into...
Startup Gippsland
If you haven't already heard, last year I took the leap and bought the Junior Writers Club. This is one way I can expand the writers groups I've been doing at the library for years, the one that I think How can I do this as a career? after just about every session. In...
Diverse Picture Books
My 19 year old son is currently studying Early Childhood at TAFE and recently did a unit on cultural diversity. He asked me to get a few picture books from my collection that represented diversity for one of his assignments. I went through and picked out six books,...
What I’ve Read – February 2021
February is over and another nine books have been moved from my To Be Read shelf to my Read shelf. Once again, most of the books have been picture books, including the debut books from some talented young authors. The first of these was The Me You Don't See by Sam...
Remember: Story is Key
When I was a kid, my family went to church every Sunday. The church we went to put an importance on storytelling. They would have a kids talk that covered the same topic as the sermon, and many adults commented that they got more out of the kids talk than the sermon!...
Random Words Writing Prompt
This afternoon in Virtual Writers Group, the kids requested a random word writing prompt. This is a prompt where I give five random words that may or may not be related, and then you come up with a story that includes those words somehow. I picked five words and they...