Author Kyle Mewburn visits again

How lucky were we at Lawrence Area School today?  Not only NZ famous, but WORLD famous author Kyle Mewburn visited us for the second time, as part of our Book Week.

He had us all in fits of laughter as he told us about how he became an author - no he was not born an author!  Surprisingly he has only been a published author for the last ten years, but he has had many story ideas that have been 'on-the-go' for years.  Kyle showed us lots of his published books - his first one, 'The Hoppleplop' only took three hours to write, however it took him three years to write 'Melu', his latest nomination in the NZ Post book awards.

We were lucky enough to be the first school EVER to catch a glimpse of his latest published work - Dinosaur Rescue 'Book of Stuff' which has a dedication in the front to several dinosaur mad children, including Toby from our school!  Here's Kyle showing Toby his name in print!  How exciting - the book isn't even available to buy yet, but we've seen a sneak preview.  

 Kyle showed us how his Dinosaur Rescue books are printed.  On the three large pages above is the complete first book in the series, all 96 pages.  Kyle told us how it was essential for these books to be exactly 96 pages to help with the printing.  A machine in Asia prints and binds his Dinosaur Rescue books before they are shipped to NZ and other countries around the world to be sold.

After talking to the whole junior school and judging the best-dressed book character for each room, Kyle made a special visit to Room 4.  And boy were we lucky again!!!!  He read us his latest 'book' (which was written on one piece of paper).  It is called 'The House on the Hill' and is written as a poem.  It is a bit creepy..... until the last page.  Unfortunately the illustrator is too busy at the moment, so this book won't be published until 2015 so we will have to wait another two years before we will see it on the book shelves.

Mrs May entered a competition recently and won a copy of Megasaurus Mash-Up (books 1-4 in the Dinosaur Rescue series) which Kyle autographed for us and presented to Room 4.  His handwritten dedication reads.....

To Room 4

Where the kids are very evolved,

and the teachers are NOT neanderthals,

and nobody picks their nose...

unless they are very hungry.

Best wishes

Kyle Mewburn