2015 Kids Literary Lunch
This is one of my most favourite events on my bookish calendar.
The annual Illawarra and South Coast CBCA Children’s Literary Lunch is so popular among local schools there’s a waiting list every year.
One thing I particularly like to see is the relationship between the kids and their librarian. Often the kids are library monitors or champion readers, being rewarded for their efforts. There’s an obvious shared love of reading that reminds me of my own primary school days with Miss Stewart a wonderful librarian who opened the wardrobe doors that led to Narnia.
This year I sat with Shellharbour Public School. Here we are looking very literary.
Jacqueline Harvey spoke abut how her school experiences influenced characters and stories in the Alice-Miranda and Clementine Rose series.The audience identified with many of her funny and sometimes embarrassing stories, coming up with some new plot ideas for her to use in her next book.
Another highlight was Oliver Phommavanh‘s platypus impersonation, to celebrate the release of Sue Whiting‘s visually stunning new non-fiction book, Platypus. There was lively discussion about whether a platypus secretly quacked.
Every year Sally Hall produces an autograph booklet with information about authors and illustrators attending the lunch. Collecting autographs is always popular. I am certain I signed my name over 100 times.
I always take origami paper with me. It helps break down any shyness barriers and gets conversation started. My personal Literary Lunch highlight was this flower Emily made for me.
