Authors’ visits aim to inspire young writers
A best-selling children’s author has been helping to inspire primary schools students during the Guille-Alles Library’s annual Book Week.
Scottish author Karen McCombie has written more than 100 books for adults and children, which have sold more than a million copies across the world.
Her presentation at Vale Primary School yesterday covered where her inspiration can come from, how her background helped her advance and clarified some common myths about writers.
‘My stories are inspired by real people, nothing grand, and I use a variety of genres, but mainly adventure,’ she said.
‘There is almost always a theme of real fun with family and friends.’
Year 6 students Anna Douglas and Tegan Tracey both enjoyed reading Ms McCombie’s books and her visit to the school.
‘My favourite book that she wrote is How To Hide An Alien because it seems like it would be really hard to hide an alien, but I can’t remember how they did it,’ said Anna.
Tegan said she was still reading How To Be A Human.
‘I like reading to escape the world for a little bit,’ she said.
Schools’ librarian Abie Thomson said that author visits were so important to both the Guille-Alles Library and the school because it was much more difficult to do so than in the UK.
‘In Guernsey, we miss out on a lot of that atmosphere because it’s not as simple as just hopping on a train across the country,’ she said.
‘It’s nice to have a week where we can bring over authors to talk to and inspire the children to read or become writers.’
She said that Book Week was a Guille-Alles library event, but that World Book Day was the official celebration of reading and production of books.
‘It’s a time when children can reflect on the books they’ve read and the characters they’ve met along the way,’ she said.
Ms McCombie visited key stage two pupils, while author and illustrator Petr Horacek spoke to key stage one students.
Award-winning children’s author Christopher Edge had been due to speak to key stage three students, but this was postponed due to illness.
World Book and Copyright Day is a global celebration which takes place on 23 April each year. However it clashes with St George’s Day, so World Book Day in the UK is celebrated on 7 March.
