Book Week was Pumped Out with visit from local children’s author

Last week, Northern Adelaide Senior College hosted Book Week, a week celebrating books and Australian children’s authors and illustrators.

Commencing with a book sale featuring generous donations from Imprints Booksellers and Gawler Books, students and staff scored big with plenty of books to choose from.

Many students and staff also entered the spirit of book week by dressing as their favourite characters but the ultimate highlight was a creative writing workshop by award-winning children’s author Mike Dumbleton.

“There are lots of things that you can talk about the process of writing books that apply to any book at any age group,” says Mike.

“I sort of feel that everyone likes picture books – the adults like picture books, the children like picture books.

“It’s a very comfortable area to be working in and you always stay relevant because they work on a childish spirit.”

Mike, who has written over 20 children’s books, 10 junior fiction and non-fiction, young adult fiction and educational materials, says that he didn’t start writing until his children became teenagers.

“I was always interested in writing but I did a lot of travelling, did a lot of sport, and then my wife and I had three kids under three and I had no time to do anything,” says Mike.

“So I waited until the children were teenagers and then started to do some writing.

“There was a bit of a delay because I have always worked full time, I was never tempted to just become a writer and that was probably a good decision.”

Mike’s double workshop focused on the writing process, redrafting, and working with illustrators.

“I thought that the workshops were full of information and quite fun,” says Victoria D., attendee of the workshop.

“It was engaging and Mike was great. It was fun to learn about the process of writing, timelines and the restrictions authors have when writing children’s books and young adult literature.”

Victoria says it was great to have a guest speaker from the field because it gives a perspective to which one can aspire.

“It’s nice seeing people that have taught and had something else other than a regular day job,” says Victoria.

“The highlight was the storytelling. The Muddled up Farm – 10 out of 10 – would recommend to every reader!

“It was a good experience; it was a highlight to have been read the stories from the author and hearing their backstory on it.”

“I really enjoyed talking with the students and I think that it’s great that their working on projects,” says Mike.

“It was good to meet the group that were writing books for their own kids to use and emphasise the importance of books with kids when they’re growing up from birth to before they even get to school.”

Want your story to come to life? Northern Adelaide Senior College can get you there. Call (08) 7285 1600 to book an appointment and find out how.