Mrs Ross and Miss Reihana took a group of students to Christchurch.

As part of the New Zealand Children's Book Awards St Margaret's hosted a Book Alive Event. Authors and illustrators who had their books nominated for an award came to the event to discuss their books. 

Mrs Ross and Miss Reihana took a group of students to listen to Steph Matuku, author of Whetu Toa and the Magician's House, Gavin Bishop, author of Captain Cook's Cook and Josh Morgan, illustrator of Bomb. 

The students were Yvonne Tongaaliki, Sunny Brown, Isobel Whitaker, Israel Malama, Loseli Siale, Vika Falepapalangi, Haven Holden-Purukamu, Dan Ali and Isobel Noble.

We were very lucky to listen to such wonderful speakers. Steph talked about why she was inspired to be a writer and the journey that took her to completing Whetu Toa and the Magician's House. Gavin Bishop spoke about his book Captain Cook's Cook and the research he did. Josh Morgan talked about the process he used to create the illustrations for the Bomb.

After the event we went to the new Christchurch Public Library and  the students got to look around the children's section of the library and participate in the activities that they have there.

The students enjoyed the event were great representatives for Bluestone School.

"I really liked hearing about the inspiration behind the authors stories." - Isobel Noble

"I liked going to the library because there was a lot of things to do there." Vika 

"It was great to listen to three authors talk about their books." - Sunny

"I enjoyed finding the story that I wrote in the Christchurch library." - Yvonne

"My favourite part was listening to Steph Maketu speak." Isobel Whitaker