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Author Inspires Year 7

June 24, 2016 at 8:30 AM

A generation that has grown up with colourful, instant, interactive entertainment at the press of a button discovered the power of the spoken word today when Stu Duval, published author, illustrator and renowned story teller, visited to work with our Year 7 students. Setting the scene for his tale by creating an original pastel artwork, Stu took the students on an hour long journey from the black sands of Piha Beach to the killing fields of Gallipoli and back, in a spoken story of courage and romance during the First World War. 

At times funny, at times sad, Stu wove a tale so colourful in language detail that the students’ engagement was clear to see. He finished by explaining that Anzac memorials can be found in towns all over NZ, including a brass plaque on Lion Rock at Piha. These memorials are all engraved with the same message, ‘Lest we forget’. Stu told the students that we will never forget as long as their stories are told and told and told… 

After a short break the group reconvened for a workshop focussed on creative writing. Stu encouraged the students to create a plan for their writing, thinking carefully about their characters, limiting the number of them, the genre and the location of their story. He said they needed to think of ‘hook’ to draw the reader in but not to ‘tell the reader everything’ so the reader adds their own imagination to complete the story.

Stu’s lively delivery was well aimed for this age group; the students enjoyed his presentation and left inspired to start their own creative writing journey!

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