On Tuesday the 29th of August, a selection of students from Year 4-6 from The Lakes P-9 School got the chance to go to the Melbourne Writers Festival. There we met a famous author known as Graeme Base and asked him a few questions.
At the start of the day, the students went onto the bus at around 10:00 to go to the city exhibition. When we arrived, we went into Federation Square to sit and eat our food. Afterwards, we went outside into the fresh air to play at the playground until it was time to meet Graeme Base. When it hit 12:30pm, students from other schools joined us in a hall to watch Mr Base get interviewed by a woman. Graeme explained to us about his history and how he became an author and illustrator, which was very interesting to hear as it was very eventful and hard for him, although he did go through in the end and he was successful. He told us how almost every single book that he wrote was based on a real life experience that he had by himself or with his family. An example of this is one of his newer books, "Eye to Eye", which was when he and his kids saw a killer whale up close. Graeme's first ever book was "My Grandma live in Gooligulch" which was published over 20 years ago. He didn't think that it was going be a "banger" but it was a huge hit and sold a vast amount of copies to the whole world. After this, he continued to make more picture books which were all as successful as his first one, from books teaching kids English techniques, to books for entertainment purposes. When the interview was finished, Graeme Base went to sign books outside. Unfortunately none of the students from The Lakes got anything signed as we had to take the bus back to our school before the bell went for the end of the day. We went back to school and wrote a recount about the whole day. Overall, the excursion to the Melbourne Writers Festival was very fun and it was great to meet Graeme Base in person. He answered all the questions thoroughly and he was really kind to the audience. I think that Graeme Base is a very hardworking author and illustrator who seeks entertainment from all ages. On the 29th of August the Year Four to Six Amazing Authors went on an excursion to the city to attend the Writers Festival to see Graeme Base. We asked him questions about how he became an author and illustrator.
While we were there Graeme Base told us about what inspired him to make these wonderful stories like My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch in 1983. He went on and on about these amazing stories and what inspired him to make them, like going to Antarctica to see killer whales and almost touching them. The more he talked about his inspirations the more we got inspired to write our own stories about key moments in our life. Graeme said don't focus on the bad stuff that has happened, only focus on the good things that have happened if you want to make a good story. I think that the thing that inspired us the most was that Graeme started so small but just by one idea he is now one of the most famous authors and illustrators in the world. I think overall we had a great time on this outstanding excursion. On Tuesday, the 29th of August, the Year 4-6 Amazing Authors went to the Melbourne Writers Festival in Federation Square. We went there to meet and learn about Graeme Base and his books like Animalia, Eye to Eye, The Eleventh Hour and The Sign Of The Seahorse. Graeme was interviewed by a woman that worked there.
We learnt about Graeme's life story, and how he became an illustrator and author. We also found out about his inspirations for new stories and images. He wrote his first book when he was eight years old, sadly the book didn't get published. He started off in school, loving art and English. He then went to university to study graphic design. After that, he went on to become a professional one. Graeme went through three jobs in 18 months and finally got bored of it. That's when his journey about picture books started. He published his first book (My Grandma Lived In Gooligulch) in 1983 and hoped that it wasn't going to be a one hit wonder. It was a big success, so he continued with picture books and became a famous author. After the interview we all went back on the bus and came back to school. Graeme has inspired many parents and children to follow their dreams no matter what! On Tuesday 29th of August we went to Federation Square to visit the Melbourne Writers Festival to see Graeme Base, a famous author and illustrator. Just after we arrived, we sat down to eat since we weren't going to get anytime afterwards to eat our snack and lunch.
After finishing our food we went on a short walk to a playground nearby and spent some time there. Then we walked back to where the interview was going to be held and sat down in the auditorium to see the live interview with Graeme Base. He talked a lot about how each book had some story around how it was written. He said that most of the events in the book were events that he had experienced, mostly when travelling. For example in his book 'Eye to Eye' he was inspired by seeing a killer whale face to face in Antarctica. He said that even back from when he was young he loved drawing and dreamt of becoming an artist when he grew up. Graeme told as that even though he liked English at school he never though of becoming an author. He later discovered that it would be better to write his own stories because it would be easier to relate his illustrations to the story-line. Graeme told the next generation of writers to believe you can do anything you like. He said that the support from the people around him helped him to follow is dreams. He told young writers to write about things that you like so that it will inspire you even more to make your story better. He taught us that the editing part (which he believes is the most important part of writing as you can change the words to more exciting and make longer phrases shorter and just keep the needed and crucial information there) is the most important part of a story. All in all, I thought it was great to meet him and hear all about his inspirations and the past of his book journey. We all learnt a great amount of information from Graeme base while experiencing a bit of Federation Square. It was a splendid day! On Tuesday, the 29th of August, we went to the Melbourne Writers Festival. When we arrived we snacked on our food as we didn't have the time afterwards. Then, we took a short walk and rested on a nearby playground. Next we went to a vast auditorium where we met Graeme Base at a live interview. Finally we left and went back to school.
We learnt that Graeme Base had a lot of support in his life, which allowed him to be who he is today. Therefore we should also pursue our dreams and wishes. Another thing we learnt was that Graeme Base started to be a graphic designer, but he didn't enjoy it. By that he told us to do what we wanted to do, and when we were writing to write about subjects we appreciated and took interest in. He suggested that editing was the most important step in writing as it permitted you to make sure your piece was the best of its ability. We also learnt that life doesn't turn out the way you expect, as Graeme thought he was going to be an artist, but turned out to be a bestselling writer and illustrator. Overall, we had a wonderful time and delighted in meeting Graeme Base on our excursion to the Melbourne Writers Festival. |