Neridah McMullin

On Friday 10^th May, I attended the Literature Alive Festival launch at the Prahran Library in funky Greville Street. It was loads of fun with Mr. Basil Varghese, the C.E.O of N.E.E.F (National Education & Employment Foundation) welcoming everyone warmly.

Basil explained the vision of NEEF is to bridge the gap between those who have and those who have not, and how the role of C.L.A.N (the Children’s Literature Australia Network) is to promote children’s literature, particularly to children with limited access to it by providing children’s literature programs to children in disadvantaged schools.

Basil outlined the Literature Alive program over the next two weeks (May 13th to May 25th) that includes a busy schedule of Author/Illustrator workshops in Libraries, exhibitions of Artwork, the ‘Reading Pictures: A panel discussion’ at Toorak/South Yarra Library and the Prahran Market event. He also introduced the mentors and the mentees of the Maurice Saxby Mentorship Program (hey, that’s us! Heather Gallagher, Nadine Cranenburg, Laura Wilson & myself).

The Mayor of Prahran, Mr. Mathew Koce, then officially launched the Literature Alive Festival.

There were two wonderful book launches:

‘Ferret on the Loose’ by Heather Gallagher, published by New Frontier. Heather told us a little bit about how she came to write ‘Ferret on the Loose’ and it was thoroughly entertaining. I spent Mother’s Day reading this book and it’s hilarious. It also touched on some more serious issues relating to bullying and ‘doing the right thing’. There are some great life lessons here. ‘Ferret on the Loose’ is part of the Little Rocket series from New Frontier Publishing and is suitable for 7+ readers. Check it out www.littlerockets.com.au

Mark Wilson also launched his wonderful new book ‘Little Dolphin’ published by Windy Hollow Books.  This story is delightful and sweet and poignant and the artwork is just dreamy. I recommend ‘Little Dolphin’ as a morning read, not on a Saturday night with a glass wine (ok, Collingwood was getting flogged by Freo; I may have been a little upset to begin with). This is a gorgeous book, another masterpiece in Mark Wilson’s collection of highly acclaimed books www.windyhollowbooks.com.au

All in all, the launch was a wonderful afternoon. Everyone was warm and friendly, my mentee buddies are lovely and the mentors are open and generous with their time and knowledge. I know we are going to have an awesome two weeks.