Book Week provides a special opportunity to connect children and authors together. The students at Stanley Primary School on the north-west coast of Tasmania were treated to a delightful visit from Debra Williams who shares some highlights in this week’s post.
I had a wonderful Book Week author visit on Wednesday the 20th of August at Stanley Primary School, following their book week parade. A small school of around 54 students, they were in one large group in the library, with the teachers on hand to help out.
I prepared a PowerPoint presentation following the theme of Book An Adventure. The first slide included Jess McGeachin’s short YouTube introducing the characters he created for Book Week 2025.
I talked about being an author, and part of a team of children’s book reviewers for Buzz Words Magazine. I shared my love of dressing up, (my maternal grandmother worked in a small factory in Sydney, where they produced dress-up clothing for kids and adults) along with some pics of myself as various characters.
Accompanying me were three of my puppets, two of whom are book characters. One was my co-presenter, my character Harriet Cooper from my Middle-Grade time-slip historical fiction/fantasy novels. I talked about puppet-making and creating characters, both for my books and for other authors.
The school has copies of my books, and one boy told me he had read my Junior Fiction cat detective novel and thought it was pretty good (I had my cat detective character with me as well). It's always wonderful to receive feedback from your target audience. I also shared pictures of various anthologies where my children’s short stories have been included.
Harriet and I wore matching outfits (created by me.) She had a small suitcase, and we talked about Booking An Adventure, as Harriet and her friend Will have plenty of adventures in my books!
One of the slides was about fiction stories, with points for the children to think about: the characters, story setting, problem and solutions etc.
I chose 2 prompts, and the students were given a writing task based on which prompt they selected. The first prompt was: Your pet is in charge of you for a day. What will they make you do? The second prompt was: You've got a magic pen. What can it do and how will you use it? The teacher/librarian split the group into three, and they worked on their short stories together. They were all so creative! I had some prizes for each group to encourage them. The students were really engaged and I was encouraged myself by their participation.
I am passionate about children’s reading and literacy levels. Apart from being so much fun, I hope the children were able to take away something creative out of the session. The librarian did indicate that she would print up some of the stories they had written for others to read.
Debra Williams
Debra, (pen name Debra Clewer), is an author of children’s novels and short stories, lifelong avid reader and a member of the review team for new children’s publications for Buzz Words Magazine. She was recently awarded a Highly Commended prize in an adult short story competition by the Society of Women Writers Tasmania. Debra can be found at:
W: https://www.clewerbooknook.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/DClewerauthor
FB: https://www.facebook.com/clewer.puppets
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