Editor's note: Rebecca Wood Barrett is program manager of Authors in the Schools, an initiative of The Whistler Writing Society.
How do you stoke the fire in kids about reading and writing? Feed them great books. And get real live authors into the classroom, to get young learners thinking about stories, and the writing craft of how to tell a story.
This September, over 2,200 students participated in the Authors in the Schools program, which brought four award-winning Canadian authors to present their newest books to students from 16 schools in Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton and Lil’wat Nation. Local author Sara Leach presented her book Slug Days, and helped Grade 2 and 3 students make up a story on the spot. Cary Fagan, author of Mort Ziff is Not Dead read to Grade 4 and 5 students and played from a mandolin he made with his own hands. Susin Nielsen captivated Grade 8 and 9s with her lively reading from her latest novel Optimists Die First, and Indigenous author Drew Hayden Taylor talked to Grade 11 and 12 students about his career trajectory and his book of short stories Take Us to Your Chief.
Five hundred and thirty copies of the authors’ books were purchased from our program supporter Armchair Books and given to classrooms up and down the Sea to Sky Corridor for students to read, study, and keep as a legacy for the future.
Our hope is that students who get to meet the award-winning, Canadian and Indigenous writers of the books they’re reading will not only be inspired to read and write more, but to tell their own stories.
