Children’s Book Week – Visit to Toorak Primary School

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking about my ‘job’ as an author to all the students of Toorak Primary School.

I spoke firstly to the Preps – Grade 2’s and then the Grade 3’s – 6’s as well as all staff members. The students were prepared and focused for my visit, listened well and asked the most awesome questions. Although Mary-Lou the librarian organised my visit, how that came about is an interesting tale.

When my son was in Grade 4 (many moons ago) his teacher would often amuse the class with her stories of her mischievous dog, Pigley. My son would come home and share these stories with me – the budding author. So for whatever reason, Pigley became Nelson and I wrote the story, Nelson’s Adventurous Day, illustrated by Deborah Baldassi and published by Era Publications as part of their Wings series. The book has also been published in Swedish and in two dialects of Norwegian.

Yesterday I was able to share the background of this story with all the children at Toorak Primary because my son’s grade 4 teacher Mrs. McKinnon, has a new school, a new dog and a new group of children to share her stories with.