4 November 2020
Student’s spooky story debuts in Blackfriars library
A scary Halloween birthday party; published 2020; author: Oscar Bourner. Oscar is a year…
A scary Halloween birthday party; published 2020; author: Oscar Bourner.
Oscar is a year 5 student at Blackfriars, and as part of our learning enrichment program he has been honing his literacy skills to produce his own picture book. Inspired by classmate Tighe McGinty’s wicked witch story, Oscar decided to write his story all about a birthday party that takes place during Halloween. Plenty of spooky mishaps ensue throughout the party, making it a real page-turner!
To celebrate the big debut of Oscar’s book, he was visited by our Head of Primary, Mr Frank Ali, who had a special surprise waiting in the primary library for him.
When Oscar arrived, he was shocked to see our Principal, Mr Cobiac, waiting in the library with great anticipation to get to read Oscar’s story together.
Mr Cobiac congratulated Oscar on his excellent work, saying the book was indeed very spooky and that he was impressed that Blackfriars could get an advance copy ahead of Oscar’s inevitable publishing deal.
“The story is very well constructed and I also love the simple but effective illustrations,” says Mr Cobiac.
But the surprises didn’t end there! Our library team loved the book so much that they decided it deserved top billing in the library catalogue.
“It’s great to have Oscar’s story in the catalogue now; it’s got its own barcode and is available for all students to come in and borrow, read and take inspiration from,” says Jacquie McEvoy, Teacher Librarian.
Learning Enrichment ESO Jez Bonig says seeing Oscar’s enthusiasm and hard work on this project has been amazing.
“I’ve known Oscar since before he started Reception, when he attended our summer OSHC program. It’s been wonderful to see him so engaged in this project – so much so that he’s thinking about writing a sequel!”
When asked what the best part of the book writing process was, Oscar and Jez agreed that it was the brainstorming at the beginning – coming up with countless silly ideas and slowly refining them to find the final story.
Congratulations Oscar on this awesome achievement; we’re so fortunate to be able to call ourselves the publishers of your first book and can’t wait to read more of your work!
