By CASEY NEILL
AUTHORS connected with Lyndale Secondary students during Book Week, and inspired them with their personal stories.
The theme for the annual literary celebration was ‘connect’ – about enjoying the experience of exploring a story and creating bonds.
Teacher and librarian Andy McLuckie said the culturally-diverse Dandenong North school used Book Week to promote the value of reading and literacy through quizzes and competitions.
Archie Fusillo has written more than 20 books for young people and on 20 August had students and teachers laughing in the aisles one minute and feeling misty-eyed the next with vivid tales of growing up Italian in Fitzroy in the ’70s.
“Archie’s real life stories struck a chord with our students, many of whom are living their own version of the immigrant experience today,” Mr McLuckie said.
Phillip Gwynne won the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year award for ‘Deadly, Unna?’ and on On 22 August spoke to students about reading to discover and connect to the world beyond their doorstep.
“Phillip also drew on his own experiences as an unremarkable student from an impoverished background to illustrate the fact that it is never too late to turn your life around and realise your potential,” Mr McLuckie said.
Cambodian immigrant Alice Pung spoke about her childhood in Braybrook in the 1980s, named after Lewis Carroll’s creation because her father saw Australia as a true ‘wonderland’.
“Although resident attitudes towards Asian refugees and immigrants were sometimes less than welcoming during this period, Alice was able to rise above the racist barbs directed at her and her family,” Mr McLuckie said.
She focused on her studies and completed a law degree at the University of Melbourne, wrote award-winning memoir Unpolished Gem, and edited Growing up Asian in Australia.
The Lyndale library visiting speaker program will conclude for the year with former Richmond and Geelong AFL premiership player Brad Ottens on 17 September.
“Brad Ottens will be our eighth guest speaker for this year and next year we hope our program will be even bigger and better,” Mr McLuckie said.
