About the Festival

This was my first time at the Melbourne Writers Festival and I really enjoyed it. We went into the Screen Worlds exhibition that was filled with technology and games. That was probably my favourite part, other than the interview with Alice Pung and Rainbow Rowell. Rainbow was really funny and now I’m tempted to read her books, and others, seeing how good the reviews were. I would love to go back there another time!

I really enjoyed listening to Alice’s background story, mainly because back then (1980s) people didn’t really like Asians in Australia and though they were weird. So listening to her story really opened up about life in Australia at this time for them. The four stories from the teen authors (High School Stories session) really opened me up to how different everyone can be. I felt so touched by one story about the homeless, and I liked how it was different and broke stereotypes. Another story I adored was about romance with a twist – not a different gender story but a same gender love story. I liked how brave they all were reading and sharing their stories on stage.

By Neila – Year 7

The first session at the MWF16 was ‘Australian Stories’ with Alice Pung and Melina Marchetta. They talked about their books and how they wrote them. I found it really interesting to hear an inside view to how they wrote their books. It also gave everyone an insight to what writing a book includes and some difficulties they face. The authors seemed to have a very strong connection to the books and the feelings expressed within them, which included many experiences from their own life. They also both had read a lot of books when they were younger.

The second session was another interview, this time with Rainbow Rowell, in which she also talked about her books. She seemed to have a lot of connections with her characters and she talked about how her characters had pieces of people she knew all mixed in to make different people in her stories. She had also read a lot of books when she was younger. After the interview I know a couple of my friends were interested in reading her books.

The last session was with Alice again and four student who had written short stories which were included in a book being launched that day ‘My First Lesson’ (based on Alice Pung’s novel ‘Laurinda’). They each read their own stories to the audience and they were really meaningful and deep. I really enjoyed listening to the different ones and it made me want to get the book and read all the short stories from all the students who had contributed to it.

Overall I had a really enjoyable day and I’m really glad I got ot go because I thought it was a really great experience and I definitely learnt a lot from it as well.

By Olivia – Year 7

Book and Movie Reviews

'Fangirl' by Rainbow Rowell

This book is about teenage twins, Cath and Wren, who are moving away from their Dad to go to college. Whilst Wren is out partying and enjoying college, Cath stays cooped up in her room, writing fan fiction and studying, with her roommate Reagan, who is almost always out, and Reagan's ex boyfriend 'Levi'. As if that's not enough for Cath, her mum comes back into her life after many years, after abandoning them with the twins Dad.

My favourite part of the book was when Cath read a book to Levi for his classes. This moment is sweet and charming, as Cath didn't have to read anything to anyone, she read it to Levi because she wanted to!

My least favourite part of the book was nothing! I thoroughly enjoyed 'Fangirl' and wouldn't want a thing to change.

What I learned from the book was to live every moment enjoying life and to never give up on your dreams.

The word that best describes the book is 'surprising'. You never really know what will happen next. There is always a new surprise in every chapter!

I would definitely rate this book a 5/5. It was written exceptionally and the characters always had something new to say. You would never know what would happen on the next page!

By Belle - Year 7

Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’

This short movie was about a bird and a boy, a boy looking to ask a girl out for a dance. To get a dance ha had to get a red rose. There was no red rose for the boy, so the bird went travelling around everywhere just to find a red rose for him. In the end she sacrificed herself by painting a white rose with blood and leaving it there for the boy. However the boy was rejected because the girl he wanted to go to the dance with said “The rose doesn’t match my dress”. Her dress was black and white though, why wouldn’t a red rose match?

My favourite part of the movie was scenery of when the bird was travelling with lots of lovely drawings.

My least favourite part of the movie was when the bird died just to make the rose red for the boy.

I learnt from the movie that black and white does not apparently match with anything including a red rose.

The word that describes the movie is artistic, because the drawings are breathtaking.

I rate it 3 stars out of 5.

By Neila - Year 7

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