Learning in the Library

Friday 17 June saw Year 5 and 6 students visited by the YA author Belinda Murrell to learn about her popular book series’, and her experiences writing stories for young adults.  Ms Murrell discussed her books for middle grade readers and shared a range of stories about her life and what inspired her to become an author.  She revealed how she comes from a family of authors and her children are often an important part of her stories. This was a great opportunity for students to expand their thinking about their reading and understand the author’s creative process. It was exciting to see how our students have been inspired to begin writing their own stories.

Some feedback from the talk included:

When Belinda Murrell came it was ​amazing. She showed us all of her books and all about her fascinating life. I really enjoyed when she talked about how she took her kids out of school for two years and travelled the world. She told us how she stayed in a renaissance building in Italy and discovered this myth about goblins. She shared many of her books with the students of Gioia House. Belinda shared her Timeslip books and Sun Sword Trilogy. She also shared her newest books The Golden Tower and The Silver Sea. Her most popular book is Lulu Bell and the Birthday Unicorn. My favourite part was learning about how Belinda Murrell gets her inspiration. She also shared about her long line of writers in her family over the years. Did you know one of Belinda’s oldest ancestors wrote the first ever Australian children’s book? Sybella E and Annabelle S
5WA

I have been reading her books for so long and seeing her in person has really inspired me to keep reading.
Charlotte
Yr 5

Yr 6 students reflected that:

The Belinda Murrell visit was great. I liked it because it helped me find a good range of books that I didn’t know about before.

I enjoyed her presentation and her talk about what her inspiration was for writing these amazing stories and what she enjoys about writing really inspired me to start writing stories as well. In the holidays I read her story the Forgotten Pearl and I enjoyed it very much. I look forward to reading more of her stories and am very grateful to be able to have the opportunity to experience an author meet and greet.

Belinda Murrell definitely encouraged me and some of my other friends to write more stories. Her enthusiasm while she talked made me really enjoy it, she even made me want to borrow one of her books!

I thought that meeting Belinda Murrell was surreal. She has fantastic books and I felt she answered everyone’s questions. I had a great time and she was passionate to meet us and tell us about the story of being a writer and just sharing the story of her book.

I enjoyed learning about her life and how she found inspiration to create her books. She is a very inspiring author to me and she convinced me to start my own books. When I was younger I used to read her Lulu Bell books and I loved to read them every night before I went to sleep.

At the end of the session students were given the opportunity to purchase their own signed copy of one of Ms Murrell’s novels. Orders can be placed using this link and will be delivered to the Library for collection.

Susan Lombardo
Head of Library and Information Services (Acting)