The Magic of Dianne Hofmeyr

An illustration from her wonderful children’s book- The Magic Bojabi Tree

Dianne Hofmeyr is a children and young teen author. Her ‘Zeraffa Giraffa’ story won Children’s book of the Week (2014) in the Sunday Times with not just a beautifully imaginative story, but equally brilliant illustrations to match. It’s not just young children who are captivated by her words, Dianne has also written a series of fast paced action and adventure novels with her Oliver Strange series for an older audience. She will be sharing some valuable insights into her writing when she visits IWLF and will also conduct a workshop for students. Dianne’s own personal adventurous history of travelling the world is infused into her work to create special reads.

She will be visiting Gurnard Primary School and Lanesend Primary School on Friday of the festival, leading workshops based on the Indiana Jones style, high adventure series: Oliver Strange and the Journey to the Swamps, (set in Botswana) Oliver Strange and the Ghosts of Madagascar (set in Madagascar) and Oliver Strange and the Forests of Secrets (set in Colombia), the workshop will explore:

How do you find a story? What makes your characters special? How do you use language to create tension? How do you develop your story using images and music?

Dianne will de attending the Thursday Ryde School event where Reception and Year 1 will be presented with The Magic Bojabi Tree – an interactive storytelling experience

Meet monkey, zebra, elephant, lion and clever tortoise and find out what happens when they all want the fruit from a very special tree. A story told with masks, music and plenty of fun and maybe even a chance to dance to some African marimba music. The Magic Bojabi Tree was nominated for the 2014 Kate Greenaway Award and is translated into 7 languages. It will be produced by the Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra in November with specially composed music.

 Year 2 and 3 will be hearing all about Zeraffa Giraffa

What happens when a giraffe is sent all the way from Africa to Paris? How will she get there? Based on a true story.  A chance to map the giraffe’s journey through the desert, down the Nile river, across the Mediterranean & finally her walk to Paris, with music to set the atmosphere. Make your own giraffe mask afterwards.  Zeraffa Giraffa, Illustrated by award winning Jane Ray, is in The Sunday Times Top 100 children’s classic in the past 10 years

Get to know more about Dianne by visiting her website.

Sarah Holding’s VERY BIG WRITE

Students across multiple year groups from Christ the King College and Carisbrooke College will work together to create a collaborative story- On a giant scroll! Sarah Holding will be leading ‘The Big Write’ workshop on Friday 17th October, taking the game of ‘consequences’ to a whole new level. Attendees will also be fortunate to hear about Sarah’s own highly successful science fiction trilogy which features a sense of ‘Dr Who’s tardis’ with time travel adventure (look out for the SeaBEAN trilogy). Reduced priced books will be available for students to buy on the day and there’ll be opportunities to get them signed by the author herself… don’t forget to bring some extra cash to school that Friday! There are stacks of glowing reviews on the website and if you can crack the code, you can win prizes so click the link and find out more.

Author of the SeaBEAN trilogy and brain behind the very successful schools workshop- ‘The BIG Write’