Flowerdale Primary School, Merrijig MARC Van, Echuca Sunshine, Little Dog and the Summer Holiday

This week has been busy, but also lots of fun.

Last Friday, as we have done for 8 years now, a small group of authors and illustrators set off to visit small country schools which form part of the MARC van network and this year it was Flowerdale and Tallarook Primary school students at Flowerdale. We presented workshop sessions to each year level, sharing our crafts and hopefully inspiring students to keep reading, writing and illustrating. Years ago, author/illustrator, Mark Wilson, covered the MARC van with his beautiful artwork.

With students from Years 3-6 I talked about researching and writing, My Friend Tertius, and with the younger Year levels I read and talked about Little Dog and the Christmas Wish and Little Dog and the Summer Holiday. I asked the preps to draw their own little dogs, here are some of them.

And then because I have a deadline looming and I needed some sunshine, I traveled up to Echuca for a couple of days to lock myself away and pull my manuscript into shape but also to wander along the mighty Murray and fossick around the bookshops in Echuca.

There I found three things – Collins Booksellers, Echuca had just received their delivery of Little Dog and the Summer Holiday and, in the secondhand bookshop, a treasured (very old copy) of Greyfriar’s Bobby and another little westie, Mia, who guards the bookshop.