Tuesday, April 5, 2011

School Holiday program

With the autumn school holidays just around the corner - April 11-21 - the Holiday Program is now available online at http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/school-holiday-program.htm.

Here are a few of the activities planned:

Writing workshop with Hilary Badger - "Zac Power: top secret & highly confidential".

Who is the mysterious HI Larry, author of the Zac Power series? As a close personal associate of HI Larry's, Hilary can reveal all. Well, not the classified stuff of course. However, Hilary has security clearance to discuss how she became a writer, what it takes to be a good writer, and all about building a story, including plot and characters.

The session is fun and interactive. Creativity and imagination are enthusiastically encouraged. All questions and book signings welcome. Suitable for ages 8-11 years.


Another writing workshop, this time with Glenda Millard - "Where to find ideas for a story & how to develop them".

Glenda is the author of many books for children and teenagers including the award winning "The naming of Tishkin Silk".

In her session Glenda will reveal all the many and varied places from which ideas can come from. She will explain how to use a questioning technique to progress a story.

Fun and interactive, this session will sharpen your writing skills. Suitable for those 12-14 years.


Maybe drawing is more your thing.

In that case you might like the Drawing Workshop with Marc McBride, celebrated artist and illustrator of Emily Rodda's "Deltora Quest" series. Learn how to draw a monster from the "master of monster"! For those aged 8-14 years.


Bookings are essential for these workshops as places are limited! Payment needs to be made at the time of booking - to find out when, where & how much just check out the library website!

There's something for everyone so get booked in now, before it's too late!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Library Writing Competition

You can read the winning entries here



Create a character and win a prize!


3 x $50 & 3 x $30 book vouchers to be won!!!

Competition closes Friday May 6!





To be in the running for one of these prizes your challenge is to create a character in a minumum of 50 words / maximum 200 words - but you need to choose one of the following names for your character:

Lucy Jones
Dora Reichman
Fred Burke
Justin Jarvis
Felix Stand
Nabi Kong
Ellen McGonagle


Helpful hints:

A really good book will often have a clever plot, be adventurous, mysterious, funny or sad but there will be some strongly drawn characters - or one, anyway - that makes you care what happens to them.

You might use:

Description:   what do they look like? are they old/young, happy/sad, lucky/unlucky, short/tall, safe or in danger, kind/cruel, etc.

Action:   what do they do? how do they move?

Dialogue/thoughts:   how do they think/speak?

Use your imagination and observation skills!!

You may find the following links helpful in bringing your character to life:






Entries close on Friday, May 6 at 5.00pm

Category 1:    7-10 years
Category 2:    11-13 years
Category 3:    14-16 years



Send your entry with your name, phone number and date of birth to library@portphillip.vic.gov.au or drop it in to your nearest library branch. Enquiries to Linda Todd 92096526.

Winners will be notified Wednesday May 18 and we will publish the winning entries on our website and Lightning Readers blog!

So, get your pens out, thinking cap on and start writing!!!