Recently, students at Victoria Park Library officially launched their own books. Professionally printed copies went on sale and the proceeds were donated to their P&C.
Led by renowned emerging novelist Kristy Nita Brown, over 150 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students participated in a Book Builders Challenge to create engaging works, including picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels.
Students explored story writing, illustrating, editing and the entire publishing process across 22 workshops, and met other experts in storytelling, illustration and publishing including Sean E. Avery, Kylie Howarth, Ash Harrier, Aśka, Kathryn Lefroy and Gabriel Evans.
The books were judged by industry leaders as part of the challenge and the winners received a professional print run of their work.
Creativity for Schools is part of the state government’s $2 million annual Creative Learning Program. Creativity for Schools awards grants to schools, arts organizations and individual artists in two categories: collaboration and residency.
The Collaboration category will award up to $60,000 to projects and/or programs designed to bring Western Australian arts organisations and creative professionals together with schools. The Residency category will award up to $20,000 to projects involving artists in school settings.
Kristy Nita Brown said it was wonderful to have the opportunity to work with staff and students from East Victoria Park Primary School and the Education Support Centre on the Book Builders Challenge.
“I created the Book Builders Challenge to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world of independent publishing,” she said.
“The program is aligned with the WA curriculum and the aim is to ignite a lifelong passion for reading and writing while providing students with a platform to shine.
“While the book launch is the grand finale for the students, their teachers have already noticed an improvement in their engagement in reading and writing as well as their vocabulary skills, which will continue to encourage their creativity.”
