SPEAKERS
Children’s Authors
Nan Bodsworth is an award winning Victorian based children’s author/illustrator in the enviable position of having all her published works in print! She has made a collection of extremely colourful and dramatic puppets relating to the characters in her classic A Nice Walk in the Jungle. These “props” are used to dramatic effect in workshops with children who spontaneously develop plays with them. Nan could talk about the process of developing successful children’s picture storybooks with a special emphasis on the integration of text and illustration. In 1999 Peg Leg Meg was published as a Penguin Aussie Bite. It received an impressive review in The Literature Base (Volume 10, Issue 2, May 1999) which said, ‘It is remarkable for the author’s use of language and the way in which she changes traditional conventions within her story. It is also a rollicking adventure story.’ Nan could conduct a workshop on this story, incorporating some of the suggestions put forward in the review. For example, Nan could discuss with students the difference between real and literary pirates or ask students to volunteer what they think some of the more unusual words mean before checking them in the dictionary. Students could make up their own definitions for words such as blabber-gob or baff-boozle which appear in the story.
Wendy Orr has written award winning books for children of all ages and can present to children of Junior Primary through to Senior Secondary College. She is a down to earth, honest and emotionally moving “performer”.
Greg Pyers, award winning non fiction author who has written extensively about the Australian environment and its animals is available to do workshops for upper primary and lower secondary age groups about animals and the environment as well as his latest fiction works which are great adventure stories that are imbued with his knowledge of natural history.
GOLVAN ARTS MANAGEMENT • PO Box 766, Kew, Victoria 3101 Australia • golvan@ozemail.com.au