LRC NEWS - AUTHOR VISIT

On Wednesday the 19th of July, the year 8 core classes were invited to attend a session with our guest author, Katrina Nannestad.

Katrina lives in central Victoria and has published around 22 books in her writing career. She was previously a primary school teacher.

Among her books are 3 historical novels aimed at middle school readers. During her sessions, she spoke about the real life stories that inspired her own fiction. She talked about the Wolfskinder of World War 2 who were small German and Prussian children (mostly orphans) who lived in the forest evading capture by the Red Army. Her interest in these children ignited much research and resulted in the novel, We Are Wolves. 

The novel, Rabbit Soldier Angel Thief was inspired by a World War 2 photograph of a 6 year old German child soldier, Sergei. Shocked by the young age of someone enlisted in the army and the obvious implications, her research led to the development of her character, Sascha.

Finally, she spoke about the inspiration for her novel, Waiting for the Storks, which is also set in the Second World War and draws on her knowledge of Himmler's Lebensborn Program. This saw hundreds of thousands of children in German occupied territories, of Aryan appearance, stolen and adopted by German families. 

It was so interesting and eye-opening to hear about her writing journey. She also did a short writing workshop with each of the groups.

Here are some photos of the day, including students asking her questions during lunchtime while she was signing copies of her books. 

Signed copies are available for purchase in the LRC for the next week and we highly recommend her books to you!