Write a Book in a Day

Write a Book in a Day is a fantastic opportunity for students to flex their creative muscles and raise money for a good cause. Students worked in 8 teams to each complete a book of between 3500 and 5000 words.  The books had to meet certain parameters – with students provided with random characters, settings and issues to force them to get very creative.

One team had to consider how to combine a TV star, a barber and an alpaca on a deserted island and involve a chase?  So obviously they decided, the TV star and his support crew - including the barber – would make an emergency landing on a deserted island and then get chased by radioactive alpacas.

Another team had to combine a school principal, a movie star and a magpie and set it all at a birthday party with an unexpected visitor.  Well clearly the movie star and her pet magpie are going to gate-crash the principal’s daughter’s birthday party, right? 

Another group provided a fish-flavoured parody of ‘The Godfather’ called ‘The Codfather’ with the characters replaced by whales, crabs and a real loan “shark”. 

Our Year 7 team found a way to link a secretary, a volunteer and a snake on the school oval with the issue of leaving school by turning it into a mystery story about a student who leaves the school and goes missing after a snake is found during the marathon on the school oval.  The local detective is busy on another case, so his secretary starts the investigation with the help of a volunteer.

Can you Imagine falling asleep on a bus and waking up on a space station with a security guard, sheep shearer and a cassowary? Because that’s what one of our groups did. 

Other stories included an aggressive koala going on an adventure through the desert with a local woodworker, a yoga instructor whose pet unicorn is stolen by a web developer and a family rivalry and a love affair feature in the final story involving a shop assistant, a window washer and a carnivorous plant set in a hardware store. All 8 books are now available to look at in our library.

Thank you to all the family members and guardians who supported their students to participate in Write a Book in a Day on Friday 16th August and help fundraise for the Kids Cancer Project, with over $3800 raised so far. Donations are open until 30th September, so if you get a chance to make a donation you would be supporting our students and helping out with a worthy cause.

We would like to thank our sponsors including Domino’s Pizza who provided our dinner pizzas at half price, Woolworths in Howitt Street who provided a range of fruit and veg for our morning tea platters and the Arch Fish Shop who provided the afternoon tea of hot chips at a big discount.

Thanks also to all the staff who helped make this possible but especially Pat Stewart and Sofia Aleem, who came by to provide extra assistance throughout the day and into the evening.

This 12-hour day can be exhausting but it is also very rewarding and all of our students did an amazing job.  Well done to everyone who participated.  It is inspiring witnessing our students’ creativity and perseverance and we are proud to have been involved in this event.  We look forward to doing it all again next year.

Loretta Kelly 

Librarian