St George Girls High School & Kogarah High School

Yes­ter­day I had the plea­sure of speak­ing to a won­der­ful group of stu­dents from St George Girls High School and Kog­a­rah High School in Syd­ney. I was there on the invi­ta­tion of two fan­tas­tic teacher-librar­i­ans, Helen Lee and Gail Johnston.

Over the course of an hour we dis­cussed our shared love of sto­ry-telling and writ­ing and explored top­ics as diverse as medieval cos­mol­o­gy, the pol­i­tics of maps, Black­beard, the Krak­en, Moby Dick, Eliz­a­beth I’s use of fire­ships to defeat the Span­ish Arma­da, and … The Very Hun­gry Cater­pil­lar.

A cre­ative activ­i­ty end­ed the day with much hilar­i­ty, and the stu­dents will now take their glo­ri­ous ideas into a pirate-themed cre­ative writ­ing com­pe­ti­tion, build­ing on the char­ac­ters and world of Empire of the Waves. I can’t wait to see what these inspir­ing young writ­ers come up with next!