Song-writing, beat-boxing, illustrating, and good old reading aloud

Was literacy this much fun when you were in school?

Queenscliffe Literary Festival’s eleventh annual Schools Program has just wrapped up and it was a smashing success.

Across two weeks in May, authors visited every kindergarten and school in the Borough of Queenscliffe. 

CBCA Award-winner Andrea Rowe captivated preschoolers with her beautiful beachy picture books; Beth and Byll Stephen from the Teeny Tiny Stevies had Foundation—Year 2 students up and dancing between readings from their six picture books; Felice Arena, author of the bestselling Specky Magee books, literally had Year 3-4s rolling in the aisles and taking speccies; and CBCA-shortlisted novelist Huda Hayek encountered some year 5-6s so polite they didn’t want to acknowledge her red nose let alone her hijab!

The kids had a ball: here is some of their feedback.

‘I like that it was funny and I learnt about things.’

‘It was super fun.’

‘It was too good.’

‘I would tell my parents that today I had the best school day ever and tell them about it.’

‘I wood tell my parents that I had a grat time.’

Thanks to these excellent authors for visiting Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale; thanks to the schools and kindergartens for their enthusiasm and support (and their AV skills!); thanks to the kids for sharing their love of books with us all; and thanks to the QLF volunteers—Viv, Colette, Marg, Ginny and especially Linden, who put it all together.

Queenscliffe Literary Festival’s Schools Program is supported by the Borough of Queenscliffe and receives donations as people buy tickets for the adult festival program. We are very grateful for the community support for this excellent program, which reaches every preschool and school student in the Borough each year.

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