A North Canterbury children’s author has spent several days in Timaru captivating primary school pupils with rural tales — like how her dad blew up a cowshed.
Jennifer Somervell, the author behind the Tales From the Farm picture book series, has been visiting schools nationwide since 2015 to share her stories and encourage children to write about their own adventures.
After last visiting Timaru more than five years ago, she returned last month to hold workshops and interactive storytelling sessions for pupils at Grantlea Downs School, St Joseph’s Timaru and Bluestone School.
Ms Somervell said it was great to bring the workshop back to Timaru.
‘‘This was one of my best visits ever. It was so well-organised and it’s wonderful when you walk in and everything works.
‘‘The children were very enthusiastic and that encouraged me as well. It was just a really lovely time.’’
Junior pupils had fun acting out scenes like the pig escape in her book A Very Greedy Tale, while the seniors learnt more about the mechanics of storytelling and how to construct their own tales.
Many of her stories are based on the experiences she had while growing up on a family dairy farm in the 1970s.
‘‘My personal favourite was the story of how my dad blew up the cowshed to make way for the latest invention in the ’70s — a rotary turnstyle. One day, I secretly recorded him telling it.
‘‘We realised we had a ripper of a story, and when my sister Margery Fern put up her hand to illustrate it, a picture book was born.’’
The pupils, teachers and librarians alike very much enjoyed her visit.
Rosie Roberts, a year 5 pupil from St Joseph’s said ‘‘Jennifer made me think about writing picture books. Her books made me smile and laugh’’.
Eight-year-old J.J. from Grantlea Downs said, ‘‘when my question was asked, I felt proud because I talked to a real author’’.
St Joseph’s teacher Sara Valentine said her class had already started writing a narrative picture book using the resources from the workshop, and Bluestone School librarian Amanda Hawker said the pupils had been buzzing from the visit.
It was a tremendous relief to see the pupils engaging with the workshop, Ms Somervell said.
‘‘What we writers do, the ones I’ve talked to anyway, is sit in their rooms, get filled with selfdoubt and then talk ourselves into a bit of a slide.
‘‘It’s a reality check to actually go out and hear the responses from the children and realise, ‘wow, I’m actually doing something that counts’.
‘‘My childhood home was like a library, most families don’t have this, so it’s a lovely thing to be able to bring some story magic and capture the children’s hearts with books.’’
So far Ms Somervell had published seven farm stories, as well as two fictional stories, and had no plans of slowing down.
‘‘I’m actually writing a memoir at the moment about my relationship with my mother and I’ve spent the last year doing that. But I will keep doing the picture books because I enjoy them and the interaction with children.
‘‘We have a third fictional book coming out in October, Curly Cat the Acrobat.’’
She said she was looking forward to hopefully returning to Timaru again in the future.
‘‘It’s almost always on invitation from the school. One of the schools said ‘see you next year’, so you never know. The kids of course always want you to come back immediately.
‘‘We’ve done a few rural schools around Timaru but not that many, so I’m sure there are more schools out there we’d love to visit.’’
The visits were booked and made possible via Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, with support from Creative NZ Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.
Tales From the Farm books are available at The Notebook, Kidstuff Timaru and talesfromthefarmpublications.co.nz.
