A Bookish Adventure

I started this blog to document an extended trip to the US and UK in 2012, introducing children to my Alice-Miranda series. It's hard to believe that it's just on four years since we launched the first Alice-Miranda title - and now there are nine books out in Australia with another five still to come. When I first came up with the idea of this precocious seven and a quarter year old, I had no clue that she would take me on such an amazing journey, not only in Australia but also across the world. I visited 37 schools while we were away in 2012 and gave over 80 talks - it was fantastic. In 2013 I've been on lots of new adventures in the UK - visiting schools from London to Southampton, Lancashire, Scotland, Newcastle and back to London again. After that I headed off to meet readers in Singapore. In Australia I've been to Melbourne, Perth, Albany, Alice Springs and Brisbane. There's a new series too - about a gorgeous little girl called Clementine Rose. She and Alice-Miranda don't know each other yet, but they will soon.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust Creative Time Fellowship Days 15 and 16

This week I've had the pleasure of visiting East Marden Primary School where I spoke with two groups of students and today I visited Glenelg Library to speak to over 80 girls from two of the local Catholic Schools.  Both events were lots of fun and I really enjoyed meeting the children and their teachers.  Lots of great drama - the mass auditions for the roles of Mr Sparks and Clementine Rose received plenty of giggles from the kids and teachers.  I also had the pleasure of meeting Janeen Brian, one of Australia's best loved children's authors.  She came along to my event at Glenelg and afterwards we had a chat over coffee.  Sue Nosworthy from the Trust came along too.  It was great to meet another of the dedicated members of the group and I am looking forward to seeing her again next week.  The Glenelg librarian, Tracey Glover is also the president of the SA Branch of the Children's Book Council and it was wonderful to meet her too. 


I've still managed to do a few thousand words on the book and I've enjoyed a couple of lovely dinners with Ian and his mother.  We went to a beautiful restaurant called Red Ochre on the river and tonight, on Sue's recommendation, we tried Paul's which is a local fish and chip restaurant in Norwood.  The whiting fillets were every bit as good as Sue said they would be.
A lovely highlight of today was meeting a young student who is currently doing a project on Alice-Miranda and me as the author.  She had no idea that she was coming to see me at the library and it was the most wonderful surprise (for me as much as for her!).




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