Literary Festival at Rockcliffe Park Public School

How many times have you read a book and wished you could ask the author why he ended the book that way, or what inspired her to write the story, or when will the sequel be out? These were some of the questions I heard our children ask visiting authors last year when I sat in on some of the workshops. What an extraordinary experience to have the opportunity to converse with an author of a book you have just read and loved! For almost 30 years, the best kept secret at RPPS has been a series of workshops we hold leading up to Book Fair that brings authors in to every class in the school. This year we will be highlighting them by calling them a Literary Festival.

RPPS is able to provide these workshops because of the profits made from the previous year’s Book Fair sales. So thank you for all those volunteer hours that help make Book Fair so successful! We have had many well known and talented artists visit the students at RPPS. This exceptional opportunity for our children to converse and learn from poets, storytellers, authors, and illustrators dates back to 1980 and includes, among others, Farley Mowat, as one of the visiting authors. Since then we have had other well known artists such as Brian Doyle, Rachna Gilmore, Marie-Louise Gay, Eric Wilson, Ingrid McCarthy, Joan Fitzgerald McCurdy, Wallace Edwards, Michel Lavoie, Andree Poulin, and JC Sulzenko. If you are not familiar with any of these names just ask your children who they are. They have been reading their poems, novels, and stories. Our children have been inspired to explore within themselves and create wonderful stories, poems, and artwork because of their exposure to such talented people.

A team of parents is currently working on the Literary Festival line up for fall 2008. During the festival each class will have one workshop in the morning and one in the afternoon. Many of the visiting artists are available for book signing during Book Fair so there will be an opportunity for early Christmas gift purchases.

Authors for this year's festival include:

Ginette Proulx-Weaver was born in Montreal, raised in Cornwall Ontario, and studied at University of Ottawa. She worked in Ottawa as a teacher for grades 3-5-6-7-8. Ginette took a long break from teaching and had 3 children; 2 girls and 1 boy. During her time home with her children she also started writing. She now lives in Greely and has been retired since June 2008 and is loving it... As a child Ginette always wanted to write. She enjoys music, reading and her cottage near the lake. They also have a cat Tomtom and a dog Oliver.

Richard Scrimger was born with very little hair and very little feet and hands. They all grew together and he still has them, together with all his organs except tonsils. Since 1996 he has published fourteen books for adults and children. He has won awards in Canada and the US, and been translated into a dozen different languages. His most recent offering is Into The Ravine, a story of love, rafting and herpetology. He is currently working on a book about death. Richard used to have four small children. He still has them, but they're not so small any more. Now their movement recalls the great buffalo herds, and the fridge door is never shut. Some people write for a living. Richard writes for his life. Visit Richard at www.scrimger.ca

Andre Paul est l’auteur, illustrateur et éditeur de la collection Léo et Julien. Son épouse Angela Rhea est la coloriste. Ses livres sont inspires de la vie quotidienne de ses deux garçons. Ils lui transmettent leur joie de vivre et leur vision positive dans tous les petits bonheurs de la vie.

Françoise Lepage
Je suis née en France où j’ai grandi. Depuis mon plus jeune âge, je m’intéresse aux livres écrits pour les jeunes. J’ai d’abord été une fervente lectrice de contes, puis de romans (la comtesse de Ségur, Hector Malot, Charles Dickens, Erich Kästner et Jules Verne, pour n’en citer que quelques-uns). Je suis venue m’installer au Canada quand j’étais une jeune adulte. Fascinée par les magnifiques images des livres pour les jeunes et par l’imaginaire débridé des histoires racontées, j’ai continué à m’intéresser à cette production littéraire. J’ai découvert la littérature pour la jeunesse du Québec avec passion. Je l’ai même enseigné à l’Université d’Ottawa pendant une dizaine d’années, et puis, un jour, j’ai eu envie d’en écrire l’histoire. Cela a donné un gros livre intitulé Histoire de la littérature pour la jeunesse (Québec et francophonies du Canada), qui m’a rapporté trois prix littéraires (prix Gabrielle-Roy, prix Champlain et prix de la Ville d’Ottawa).

Joan FitzGerald McCurdy was born in Exeter, Ontario but grew up in Prince Edward Island. She started writing when she was in grade 5.
When Joan was 19 she moved to Montreal. Her career led her into film writing, research and documentary writing, along with TV specials. Joan was also a consultant for the motion picture “The Assignment” starring Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley, and Aidan Quinn.
Joan FitzGerald McCurdy’s educational background is in English Literature and Philosophy and she has a law degree from University of Ottawa.
J. FitzGerald McCurdy is now a full time author and has written The Serpent’s Egg Trilogy. Her latest trilogy The Mole Wars Trilogy includes Book 1 The Fire Demons, Book 2 The Black Pyramid, and Book 3 Guardians of Fire. The exciting news is that Guardians of Fire will be published in 2009!

Lesley Airth is a professional educator with a Masters Degree in Education. She is also the mother of three young children. As a Canadian living in Europe for nearly a decade, Lesley attended ceremonies and visited many sites where Canadians are honoured. The profound impact of hearing the stories and seeing the tears of those who were liberated, and their liberators — Canadian veterans who returned to re-visit the people and lands where they had fought and their comrades had died — proved indelible. What We Remember is the result of Lesley’s passion to ensure young Canadians know that the peace and freedom they enjoy today is the legacy of courage and sacrifice.

Jack Mitchell was born in New Brunswick and grew up in Ottawa; he was a student at Rockcliffe Park from 1981-1983. At the age of fourteen, his admiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings prompted him to take Latin in high school. He has been interested in Roman history ever since. He studied Classics at McGill University and holds a Ph.D. in Classics from Stanford University, where he wrote his first novel, The Roman Conspiracy. The Ancient Ocean Blues is his second book, but at the moment he is living in Toronto and about to start work on the third in his ancient Roman series.

Katherine Grier
A storyteller of many years experience and a former teacher, Katherine is known for her quiet yet powerful style and for stories that arrest, delight and move her listeners. Her repertoire includes folktales, myths and legends from many cultures as well as tales shaped from her own and others’ personal experiences.
Katherine has visited many classes at Rockcliffe, often the older grades, but this year it will be the younger children who get to experience the magic of Katherine’s stories.

Rachna Gilmore
Rachna Gilmore is the critically acclaimed Governor General’s Award winning author of numerous books with multiple honours and awards. Her publications include picture books, early readers, middle grade and young adult novels, as well as adult fiction.
Born in India, Rachna has lived in London, England and Prince Edward Island. She now lives in Ottawa where she continues to plark (play, work, lark) at her writing, dreaming up weird and wonder-filled tales.
Rachna’s children’s books include the exciting fantasy novel, The Sower of Tales, , as well as the popular A Friend Like Zilla and Mina’s Spring of Colors. Picture book titles include the Governor General’s Award winning A Screaming Kind of Day, and the well-known Gita trilogy, as well as the recently released Grandpa’s Clock.

Lysette Brochu a longtemps enseigné au primaire, au secondaire puis à l’université, avant de se consacrer à l’animation culturelle ou pastorale puis à l’écriture. Depuis 2001, elle a publié Saisons d’or et d’argile, un recueil de récits et de tableaux de vie et sept livres pour enfants. Son album, Moi, Mabel, la vache volante, s’est retrouvé finaliste au Prix littéraire le Droit en 2003 et son album Florence et la Sainte-Catherine a été choisi par Ibby Canada et KBBY (la division de Korée) afin de représenter le Canada au festival Nambook-006 (Nami Island International Children's Book Festival 2006), festival d'une durée de 70 jours, qui s'est déroulé entre le 22 avril et le 30 juin 2006, sur l'Île de Nami. Lysette Brochu voyage beaucoup afin de participer à des Salons du livre ou afin de réaliser des animations littéraires auprès de ses lecteurs… On l’a invitée en Gaspésie, à Vancouver, à Edmondon, à Halifax, au Sault Ste-Marie, à Sudbury (sa ville natale), à North Bay, à Toronto, à Sainte-Catharines, à Laval, en Estrie, à Genève en Suisse, pour ne nommer que certains endroits et dernièrement, en mai 2007, on l’a accueillie à Épinal, en Lorraine, la ville de l’événement Les Imaginales dans les Vosges, en France.