Sharon was brilliant with our groups for Book Week in 2024! Engaging and entertaining with the children, with plenty of laughs along the way. The create-a-story process included excellent tips on character and setting building, with some lovely singing for the younger groups as well. We’d love to have Sharon back for more!

Sandhya was at the primary school p-6: I had one teacher comment that she was probably the best author they had ever had in terms of keeping the kids engaged and attentive.

Both Veresdale and Woodhill schools enjoyed Martin's Visits. The children loved seeing the process that Martin engages in when illustrating and contributing their ideas. He captured their imagination and encouraged them to experiment with ideas and drawing etc. Thank you for recommending Martin for our visit this year.

Professional and efficient

We booked Greig Dreise to present to a group of Aboriginal year 5 and 6 primary school students about his experiences of being an Indigenous author. The aim of the presentation was to share culture, inspiration and to build aspirations. He travelled all the way to Sydney for the day just to do this, he arrive in plenty of time and was keen to engage with the other activities we were holding for the students so that he had a really good feel for the day and what we were trying to achieve. His p [...]

Tim was great. He was well-prepared and encouraging to the students. He has a genuine, relatable style and was able to speak to a wide range of year levels in an age-appropriate fashion.

Zena Shapter's workshops and talks have been thoroughly loved by staff and customers at Mosman Library Service. We have engaged her to work with both our teens and our adults, and everyone has always come out of her talks and workshops eager to use what they've learned and full of praise for her instruction. She is also a pleasure to work with, always professional and friendly. If you are looking for a speaker or someone to lead a workshop, I would look no further than Zena.

Thank you so very much for your time today. I've already received over 20 emails from parents and students expressing their thanks and appreciation. The students and staff really loved meeting you, getting to know more about the book writing and illustrating processes and seeing some of your magnificent pieces of art. They are already asking if we can have you back next week!! Again, thank you so very much for all that you brought today. It was truly a memorable experience, one which we will a [...]

Karen was amazing with the children. She got them to open up and think about things in a different way.

Thank you for your help with our Writer in Residence program at Ryan this year. Your recommendation of Tristan Bancks worked well, and I could not recommend him more highly to other schools looking to run a similar program. We threw quite a challenge at him; he worked with students from Year 1 all the way to Year 9, and with teachers as well. In all of his sessions, he was organised, informative and engaging. The students were awestruck and got a lot out of it, and the teachers have been offeri [...]

Nadia was a pleasure to work with. Her preparation prior to the Festival ensured that the guest authors were well versed in what they would discuss and the format of their sessions. She created a warm and welcoming ambience on stage and involved all the participants equally. She was a calm and reassuring presence for our novice presenters and they all had a very positive experience thanks to her assistance. Nadia has a professional and engaging manner and creates a great rapport with all those s [...]

The workshop was engaging and the boys were immediately hands-on.

Candice's presentation for our middle school children was very well received and the group selected for the writing workshop were excited and productive.

Kim has just left our school and she is truly a gifted artist, author and speaker. I have not enjoyed an author visit so much. Her energy and obvious love she has for her work is infectious and the Year 2 children were captivated. The year 7 students who helped move her equipment were enthralled by her and her work and Kim is so open with children they would have kept her talking all day if I hadn’t shooed them back to class. We would like to book Kim to visit again in August if possibl [...]