Surprises laid on for pupils

CLUCK: Matarawa artist and author Rhondda Greig and Victoria Clark, 11, of Greytown School (left) and Hazel Rippey, 12, of Kahutara School with Gwen the bantam hen. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Shouting in a library and a hen laying an egg in council chambers helped excite the muse among pupils from across greater Wellington at the Wairarapa inaugural Speed Date an Author event in Carterton on Wednesday.

Lynette Hartgill, New Zealand Book Council programmes manager, said the Carterton Events Centre was an ideal venue for the inaugural Wairarapa session of Speed Date an Author, which was held in the town yesterday as part of the Kokomai Creative Festival Wairarapa.

Ms Hartgill said the events have been running in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for the past five years. The Carterton event was the Wellington session for the year and was attended by 55 gifted and talented pupils from 11 schools in the greater Wellington region including Wellington City, Kapiti coast, Manawatu, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa.

The traditional model of the programme targets Year 7 to 13 students moving through five shorter "intensive" sessions with a writer or poet apiece, and a midday lunch break from "what can be quite exhausting work for them", Ms Hartgill said.

Ms Hartgill said upper primary and intermediate school teachers would often request the programme be geared to a lower age group, and a pilot was run at the Dunedin Writer's and Readers Festival last year.

Carterton was the second session to be held for pupils aged from 7 to 11 and the younger age group events will be repeated.

The Carterton session ran from 10am to 1pm and featured four writers including Matarawa artist, poet and children's book author Rhondda Greig, Masterton writer Shirley Corlett, who has published numerous books for adults and children, Coromandel-based young adult fiction writer Des Hunt, and Apirana Taylor, Te Whanau-a-Apanui and Ngati Porou poet, novelist and playwright, of Paekakariki.

Mr Taylor had on Tuesday also visited Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Wairarapa in Masterton with Mr Hunt, who was a teacher for decades and was this week touring some Wairarapa schools as part of the Kokomai festival.

Mr Hunt was known for placing his stories in clearly recognisable locations in New Zealand and for weaving environmental messages in to his tales. Each of the schools represented at the session yesterday took home a copy of his award-winning book Project Huia or or a copy of his latest book, Cool Nukes.

"We try to give the students as broad a range of experiences as we can. Rhondda is doing illustration work with a live chicken, which is a first for us, and performance poet Apirana Taylor at times gets the students to yell - and we're in a library."

Mr Taylor shouted as inspiration and illustration of the power of words and could be heard through the adjoining library.

Ms Greig had brought Gwen the clucky hen for pupils to capture on paper using either oil and chalk pastels, coloured paper collage, coloured pencils, or felt and glitter felt pens.

Ms Hartgill said the Kokomai festival group and Wairarapa REAP had helped create a smooth first-time session in Carterton and similar events will be run in Wairarapa.

"It's been fantastic here, the venue is amazing. It's actually the perfect venue for the event."