Yo-yo!

I’ve had a great week, starting off with a visit to Melbourne for Penguin’s PD day at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. I met heaps of secondary teachers and teacher-librarians who were checking out the latest education and fiction titles from Penguin. So cool to get some feedback for Thai-riffic! at schools. Afterwards, I went to the State Library of Victoria and checked out the picture book art exhibition, it bought back so many memories, seeing all those illustrations on display. It goes to show that picture books live on forever…here’s a picture of my favourite nerdy place 🙂

And now I’m in the middle of the Newington Literary Festival at Newington College. So many authors…I was gushing around like a booky fanboy again hahaha. It was very interesting to hear a panel on books and boys. The speakers Andrew Daddo, Maggie Hamilton and Tristin Bancks all spoke about teenage boys who were struggling with a range of issues from body image to what it takes to be a man in the digital age. Very helpful for guys like me 🙂

But I got to experience this firsthand in my workshops and talks with Year 7 and 8 boys. I keep telling them to use their own lives to fuel their stories. By tapping into their joys and fears, I got a sense of what they were into…a few kids taught me how to gabba, yeah I think it’s some sort of dance, though if you were watching me do it you’ll probably ban me from doing it hehe.

Tomorrow, I’m going to judge a theatresports competition. It’s going to be so cool seeing these boys flex their improv skills. Stay tuned for some more fan service!

O.W