Library News

Author Visit - Biffy James  

 Last Wednesday, October 30th, Viewbank College students had the opportunity to meet and converse with Biffy James, known for her award-winning YA novel: Completely Normal (and other lies). 

We spent our time discussing the reason people read to feel something, particularly sadness, as this is one of the key concepts in her own book. 

Biffy used her light-hearted nature to keep the conversation uplifting and moving at the same time, giving us pause to reflect on each other’s shared ideas. 

We followed with a talk about the relevance of feeling and expressing emotions through reading and writing; that humour is often what makes a story so relatable and fun to lose yourself in. 

James herself, proved how well she understood this, connecting this idea to her past and telling stories of her time as a teacher, which made everyone laugh. 

Aside from speaking of her debut novel and telling funny stories, Biffy shared some important skills to navigate high school and our adult lives. 

She taught how necessary it is to ‘demand the respect you deserve’ from the people who matter most and showed kindness and curiosity toward each participant of the conversation. 

It was amazing to spend time with such a legend, as Biffy would put it, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone enjoyed discussing their love of literature with such an enthusiastic, bubbly author as she.

Daisy Millen Year 8