Library News

As we enter Term 4, Seymour College Library is ticking along well as a vibrant P-12 space in our community. Students continue to drop in and help out at breaktimes as part of our Friends of the Library program. Three students recently earned new badges for volunteering:

Bella Milne (F2D) and Shakyrah Rhue (56A) are now official Friends of the Library after volunteering 10 times (Bella also wanted to keep my misprinted first attempt).

Superstar volunteer Scarlett France (56B) received her 20 badge, making her our first Bookworm, and is well on her way to becoming our first Deputy Librarian (30 times volunteering). Unfortunately, we didn’t snap a picture of Scarlett with her badge – but it looks like this!

Students are welcomed any break if they would like to volunteer and earn tokens and badges!

We’ve also been blessed with an adult volunteer. Pam Boulton comes to us after volunteering at Euroa Primary School Library, and she has professional career with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We’re hoping, with a background like that, she will bring some much-needed organisation to our busy returns trolley and shelves. Pam will join us on Wednesdays. If you see her about, please make her feel welcome. Alongside reading, Pam loves to shoot the breeze about gardening and photography (especially of birds). If you’re interested in volunteering with us, please get in touch.

Another early term highlight was an author visit on Monday morning from comics writer, illustrator, performer, and educator (the list goes on) Bernard Caleo. Bernard ran a workshop with Year 7 students about visual storytelling in comics and graphic novels. Being asked to draw can make people feel quite vulnerable – there’s something about it that brings out our worst inner critic – but Bernard’s thousand-mile-an-hour, theatrical presentation style immediately got students giggling (at him and themselves) and drawing. Bernard walked students through how storytelling works on the comics page, especially the all-important gutters (the gaps between panels) where the reader’s imagination takes over. Year 7 students are studying Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie’s graphic novel Pearl.

Here's what 7B student Kayla had to say about Bernard’s workshop:

“I had an amazing time with learning with Bernard. He taught me that comic books aren't just about being perfect or having perfect drawings, but that comics are about having fun and learning new techniques. I'm excited to read his new book when it is released.”

All the best and happy reading,

Seymour College Library