16 lucky Year 5 and Year 6 students attended this year's Dunedin City Library writers workshop run by authors Donovan Bixley and James Russell

Ignition kids book festival by Poppy

On Friday the 8th of November we all met up outside the Owhiro centre rushing with excitement for the ignition kids book festival.

We were going to meet James Russell and Donovan Bixley (that probably explains the excitement!). When everybody was ready we got told the groups we were in and the scary part was NO TEACHER WAS GOING! Finally we got to the Dunedin public library and rushed up what seemed like millions of steps and finally made it to the front doors. At the front there was a display of a rocket to represent our creative juices shooting to space. East Taieri school went to James Russell’s session. First he told us some of the weird questions the kids at schools he’d been to had asked him, then he talked about his funny childhood and started talking about how he got inspired for his books. His children are actually called Flynn and Paddy (the names of the boys in the dragon brother book series). We also got time to make a few stories here is my story:

The mosquito who wanted to become vegetarian

Today I decided to become a vegetarian because I had a terrible experience with a human. She was sitting on the smooth sand running her fingers through it when I jumped on her. I bared my tiny fangs and took a bite in her leg ”ahh” she squealed. It was then when I realised a dreadful taste sitting on my tounge my WORST nightmare, mosquito spray! Of course, I have never had this taste in my mouth but my friends had told me all about it “no so this is what my friends feel like” Exclaimed and that is why I want to become a vegetarian

I really enjoyed this book festival and definitely recommend it for all ages!

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By Leo

The adventures of alice was one of the first children's literature. From then the thought of children’s books have escalated over many years. From the hobbit to harry potter children’s

Literature has kept us entertained for the past century and still is.

This year the annual writers workshop took place in dunedin and few location in central otago.

Over a dozen children from east taieri primary school advanced to the dunedin public library

To take a two hour writers workshop with the author of the best selling dragon brothers trilogy

Known as James Russell. Remarkably funny the author explained almost his entire childhood from child to adult.

Did you know? When at the Otago university himself and his companions went surfing on a cold,glacial day. Then walking down the beach they saw a 4 metre shark near shore. flabbergasted the friends called O.D.T [otago daily times] and reported the cannibalistic monster. In less than an hour a taxi arrived to take them home. When interviewed James gave his exact details except for that he named himself Wilbur Koocsmyer [famous surfing cartoon strip character] instead of his real name. And when the weekly news arrived his name was nowhere to be seen but found only found the title of Wilbur Koocsmyer on the front page! Then after he’d shown his marvelous stories it was time we write one of our own. After experiencing the epic dragon brothers series we brainstormed our own island as from the books. Our group compromised on the name dragon island [as shaped as a dragon] with features like black wood forest or lake louise. Then james split the group into thirds. One third would describe the plane crashing to the island the others would base their writing on after the crash and the epilogue on surviving on the island. After approximately 10 or so minutes the group collaborated to share their ideas. Then at 12:00 pm the workshop finished with our future writers packed with knowledge

By Leo