Youngsters inspired to write
To wrap up national Library Week, the Knysna town library and Friends of the Knysna Libraries hosted a meet-the-author and a storytelling session on Friday, March 24. The library invited Oakhill learners to meet with Lynn Le Roux, a children’s book author.
To break the ice, Le Roux asked if any of the learners had any questions, and a boy called Andre wanted to know if Hercules was really a god or just a myth. This question was answered by local animation studio Sparklife’s Walter Corbett, who explained that Hercules is indeed a myth.
The two then had an interactive session with the learners, talking about story ideas, writing page turners and to actually start writing.
Le Roux said she was inspired by Corbett to write her first book. “He wrote the first three paragraphs of the book and I took it from there and basically ran with it. Looking back, who would have ever thought that I would be writing, and publishing children’s books?”
She said her passion awakened while working for nature conservation and that she will soon be making animation movies with her books.
“To teach was never something I strived to do, yet, here I am trying to teach our youth by writing books that will help create awareness of our environment and its special creatures,” continued Le Roux. “In fact, I was raised by a family of teachers and vowed never to go that route. How interesting life is.”
After hearing her story, eight-year-old Adrien Geldenhuys said he was inspired to start writing a story about his life. “My mother takes me to different places every weekend so I want to write about all my adventures.”
Another was Inothando Dayimani (9) who said, “I found the meet-the-author session very interesting and I am inspired to start writing myself, but what made it stand out for me is the fact that they broke everything down so that we can understand and we did.”
Ben Lemke (8) said he is motivated to write a book about endangered species and that he loves books. “My friend and I started writing a book last year and I think this is the best time to finish writing that book and more.”
On the other side of the library, a storytelling session was in progress with Grade 1 learners from Knysna Christian Mission School. The first book was “The cow who climbed a tree” by Gemma Merino, shortly followed by Collin McNaughton’s, “Have you ever ever?”
Natasha van Schalkwyk a teacher from the school said, “We have someone who visits the school on a weekly basis read and tells stories to our learners. So promoting reading is something that we do and we’re just so privileged to have been invited by the library during the library week.”
After the storytelling session, Storm Fowler (7) said she learnt how to protect books.
Mbali Matanda (6) said she enjoyed the story and Onako Magibe (7) said, “I learnt how to be friends with my books and can’t wait to share everything I learnt with all my other friends.”
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Source: Knysna Plett Herald News