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Children’s author to tour Latrobe City The Latrobe City Library Service will host workshops with popular children’s author Phil Kettle from Monday 26 July until Thursday 29 July By Latrobe Shire Council - 12th July 2004 - Back to News The Latrobe City Library Service will host workshops with popular children’s author Phil Kettle from Monday 26 July until Thursday 29 July and will also run an evening discussion session with the author, entitled ‘How to get your Child Interested in Books’ on Wednesday 28 July at the Morwell Library.
Phil Kettle is the author of the TooCool, Boyz Rule and Xtreme World of Billy Kool series and he is one of fifty authors who will be conducting creative writing workshops across Australia as part of the NESTLÉ Write Around Australia program.
Latrobe City Library Coordinator, Noeline Grayden, said that Phil will run 12 workshops designed to give children the opportunity to learn more about the magic of writing in libraries throughout Latrobe City.
"Phil is a well-known author, and although his books are generally aimed at a young male audience, they have been extremely successful in encouraging many children to read who were previously reluctant to participate in the activity. Young writers will learn a lot about the magic of words from Phil and it is hoped that a lifelong love of reading and writing will be ignited by the workshops," Ms Grayden said.
"Local senior primary school children will be invited to attend the creative writing workshops with Phil and twenty competition finalists from the NESTLÉ Write Around Australia competition will attend their own special writers’ workshop with the author. During this workshop the competition finalists from Years 5 and 6 will learn writing techniques and will have the opportunity to polish and re-submit a story for the final round of judging, in which state and national winners will be chosen. The Latrobe City Library Service hosted the NESTLÉ Write Around Australia writing competition this year and was extremely impressed with all of the wonderful entries that they received from young writers in the local area," Ms Grayden said.
The NESTLÉ Write Around Australia competition is held annually and gives away over $200,000 worth of prizes nationally, including collections of Australian books for the winning students and their school libraries, backpacks full of Nestlé goodies and two laptop computers with software packages. This is the tenth year that the competition has run on a national scale and an additional prize has been created in celebration of the milestone. Two winners from each State and Territory will be flown to Sydney with their parents for the national winners’ presentation in early December.
NESTLÉ Write Around Australia is a Nestlé Good Life program developed to encourage children to take part in creative writing and to utilise the resources of public libraries. The program is coordinated by the State Library of New South Wales and supported by the State Library of Victoria and local libraries around Australia.
Ms Grayden said that as well as conducting a series of workshops, Phil will also talk to parents in a free evening session about how to interest children in reading and writing.
"Phil thoroughly enjoys participating in workshops and discussion sessions and he is only too pleased to spend time talking to parents and students alike. During the workshops he will encourage students to write their own stories and during the evening session he will speak to parents about the many ways in which they can encourage their children to read and write more often," Ms Grayden added.
The free ‘How to get your Child Interested in Books’ discussion session with Phil Kettle will be held at Morwell Library on Wednesday 28 July at 6pm. For more information about the discussion session, the workshops or to make a reservation contact the Morwell Library on telephone, 5128 5436. A light supper will also be provided after the discussion session.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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