On Wednesday, 21st May the author and
storyteller, Lari Don, came to visit
our P4 classes. She had a wonderful time
telling stories and answering some very challenging questions. Lari has visited our school on many occasions
and we are always delighted when she has time in her busy schedule to come to
Flora’s.
Lari had a little time to spare at the end of her
storytelling sessions so Book Group managed to grab an interview. Thank you, Lari. You’ve really given us a lot to think about. Here are the questions we discussed:-
1)
We first came across your writing with First Aid
for Fairies, which won the Royal Mail Award (now Scottish Book Awards). What impact did this award have on your
writing career?
A)
It was very important because it meant that my
publisher wanted more books in the series and it also made other publishers
interested because they heard about the award. I have now written over 20 books
and getting that award really helped me. Getting the award never changed what I
wrote and I will never write a book to get an award or write a book similar to
that to win again.
2)
You have
usually written for younger readers but we notice you are now moving into the
market for young adults. What prompted
this change and will be seeing more of this type of novel?
A)
It was not a decision but it was a change that I
made because I had an idea in my head. The idea that I had was too dark and
dangerous for younger children so it had to be for teenagers. I really enjoyed writing this type of story
and I got a good reaction from it. I will write more young adult books but I
won’t stop writing for younger children.
3)
You have been working with our P4 classes
today. Is this something new you have
been trialling and can you tell us a little bit about it?
A)
Yes, I
have been trialling a new collection of books about shape changers and I wanted
to practise those stories to see the reaction. The P4s were brilliant and had great ideas.
4)
You are passionate about public libraries. What advice would you give us to help
maintain our school library and encourage pupils to use their local library?
A)
Your library is very bright and colourful and I
love how you have lots of posters up because it makes books look exciting. I
would suggest to keep getting new and interesting books and to display them
excitingly. Also to categorise books and have themed
displays but change them on a regular basis.
Keep the covers of books facing
forwards because covers look a lot more exciting than spines. I love
public libraries and you can order books in from around the world. I
recently had a book ordered from London come to my library because none of the
libraries in Edinburgh had it! I would
say just go into a library to see exactly what it’s like. Nobody ever says shh in a library and they
want you to have fun.
5)
You are Patron of Reading at your local primary
school. What benefits does this role
bring to both yourself and the school?
A)
The primary school is in an area where not very
many people read or have lots of books in their house so we are trying to
create a community where people can read for fun at school but at home as well. If
children read for fun then it raises educational standards and makes your brain
better. We want to get the whole family
to read and parents to read to their children because if the family reads then
the child will read as well. It benefits me too because I can form
relationships with the school and it’s better than just going once and getting
everyone reading then it all stops. I like to look at books with the children and
can follow it through with projects. I love talking to children about books and I
can test out new ideas on them. I get to go back a lot so I can get to know a
child from nursery all the way to P7.
6)
You are a regular visitor to Flora Stevenson
Primary School. What do you enjoy most
about your visits?
A)
I love your hall, it is beautiful and Miss
Broadley is a great teacher who loves talking about books but what I enjoy most
is the children. I enjoy their questions and love talking with
them.
7)
You have recently written a new book called Mind
Blind but what gave you the idea for a book about a mind reader?
A)
Writers are a bit like mind readers because we
have to imagine what our characters are thinking but I was also interested in
the idea that someone had a super power that we would think was really cool but
was a hindrance for them, like in my book the character can read thoughts and
emotions but it overwhelms him and he can’t function properly.
Well, what next?
Award winning author, Chae
Strathie, is visiting P1 on Monday.
This visit is a prize for Emmeline winning the Bookbug section of the
Scottish Children’s Book Awards review competition. More from Chae in our next post. On Wednesday, the poet and author, Diana Hendry, will be giving poetry
workshops to P2. Diana is a regular
visitor to our school and she reads us great poems! We’re looking forward to interviewing Diana
in couple of weeks when she is also giving a workshop to P4/5.
Mrs Burdon has been very busy and has catalogued most of our
new library books. We still have some
money to spend so we will be perusing the catalogues for more exciting books to
add to our library.
Don’t forget our Scholastic
Book Club. You can order online and
your books will be delivered free to the school. For every £1 you spend, we earn 20p
commission to spend on more books.
We hope you are enjoying reading our blog. We would love to hear from you so send us a
comment.
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