Book Week Term 2024
Term 3, 2024 — WOW, what a term! The busiest speaking term I have EVER had.
Yesterday I had my last speaking gig for the term, so I thought it a good moment to reflect. I visited 20 schools and attended 3 festivals. I spoke to so many engaged and enthusiastic students and some pretty awesome teachers and librarians. I signed lots of books, answered so many questions and even posed for selfies with students and teachers.
I had some pretty wonderful responses to my visits. Here’s my fave teacher-librarian comment, from Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar…
“I just wanted to write and thank you for visiting my School during Book Week. Your talks with our Year 5 and 6 students were so engaging and our students continue to borrow and discuss your books with great enthusiasm! Thank you for signing lots of copies of your work and making our students feel so special. It was such a great start to our week. Thank you for adding to the magic of our Book Week celebrations!”
And here’s what Mentone Grammar’s Instagram account had to say…
“As a particular highlight, George treated the class to a reading from his latest novel Monster Island. He wowed the students with his performance skills, and many spoke about rushing to the library or book store to read the book!”
But it’s the student responses that really get me. I received loads of hand made cards, notes and comments on social media. Here are a few of my faves…
“George Ivanoff, a humorous yet quirky being, visited our beloved school to educate the students on his experiences being an author and how he thrives in his everyday life.”
“He was kind, respectful and talked to the crowd with energy and excitement. ”
“Good Job. You are a rizzler.”
I had to look “rizzler” up on the Interwebs. Apparently it’s “someone who radiates confidence”. Gosh, I’m so old!
In between the madness of Book Week school visits, I also attended The StoryArts Festival in Ipswich, the Bendigo Writers Festival and Write Around the Murray in Albury.
The StoryArts Festival is one of the BEST youth literature festivals in the country. Not only is it one of the longest running, it’s also the festival that runs for the longest time — five days of presenting to students during the schools portion of the festival, then two days of presenting to grown-ups in their professional development conference. Exhausting, but also exhilarating and so very satisfying.
StoryArts also gave me the chance to perform some Shakespeare, get faux-hypnotised and present in a chapel (even getting to ring the chapel bell). So cool!
A big shout out to A LOT OF BOOKS, the bookshop that attended StoryArts. One of the best festival bookshops EVER, they had every book that I spoke about in my sessions at their stall. And I had two books in their Top 20 sales for the festival — Monster Island and The Supernatural Survival Guide.
The Bendigo Writers festival is a general literary festival which includes a family program and a schools program. I attended to speak on the family program. It was such a friendly festival with a wonderful range of authors. I had the opportunity to attend the sessions of numerous other authors and to socialise with them as well. Such a lovely experience.
The Write Around the Murray festival is also a general literary festival, with a schools program. I came along primarily to speak on the schools program. But they also gave me the opportunity to be part of the general program, appearing on a panel about media tie-in books, with Chris Kennett (who’s illustrated some Star Wars books) and Eden Porter. It was such a blast getting to talk about writing Doctor Who and Doctor Who spinoffs. I was in fanboy heaven!
With Term 3 now over, I get a bit of a break. But there are a few more school visits in Term 4, as well as two more festivals — Once Upon a Festival in Adelaide and the Inspired Readers Festival in Port Macquarie. I am looking forward to them.
Oh, and somewhere in amongst all this speaking, I’ve been trying to write a new book! 🙂
