Annual Toowoomba (Qld.) Diocesan School Libraries Conference, 2-4 June 2014

Yesterday and today I attended the Annual Diocesan School Libraries Conference, held at the Highfields Cultural Centre just outside Toowoomba. The conference offers a program of professional development and training for Teacher Librarians and Library Assistants such as myself, who work for Catholic Education, Toowoomba Diocese.

This year we had some very interesting guest speakers. Kerry Argent spoke to us about her work as an author/illustrator. Some books illustrated by Kerry include Finola Fox, A Giraffe in the Bath, Miss Lily's Fabulous Pink Feather Boa, Ruby Roars, Sebastian Lives in a Hat, Wombat Divine, India the Showstopper and One Woolly Wombat. Kerry spoke about her love of drawing animals and the processes involved in illustrating a children's book.

We also heard Emily Craven, young adult e-book author, talk about the non-traditional route of self-publishing and how social media can be used by students to tell a story. Emily's latest comedy novels are set in Facebook and she is the digital producer at If:Book Australia.

I particularly enjoyed hearing children's and young adult author, Brian Falkner. He was very entertaining and his passion for writing was very evident. Brian's books include The Flea Thing, The Real Thing, The Super Freak, The Tomorrow Code, Brainjack and The Project among others.

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Sharon Manteit

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