Student reveiew of the Ignition writing festival

By Beth Downie | Posted: Tuesday November 19, 2019

A group of senior writers attended a workshop at the library, hosted by well known NZ author James Russell, read a review below

On Friday the 8th of November a group of kids attend the writing Ignition festival (http://www.ignitionkids.nz). There were multiple New Zealand authors taking workshops for different schools. James Russell took Kaikorai workshop with a few other schools. He is the author of the Dragon Tamers, Dragon Hunters and the Dragon Riders series. These are picture books for children and they were based on his two sons Flynn and Paddy who were the main characters in the book. The books were so successful he turned them into series fiction books. He has written 4 books so far in the series and now writing the 5th and final one. James read some of his books to us and they sounded pretty good. We did writing warm-up about mosquitos becoming vegetarian. People had really good stories and some got to read theirs out. After the warm-up, we drew a map of an Island. The Island was called butterfly Island and we all voted on what should go on the Island. Some features on the Island included a forest, shipwreck and a mountain range. After doing the map we had to imagine flying over the island and crashing on the Island. James split the group up into 3 parts and each group had to write a different part of the story.

Everyone had a great experience and we learned about James Russell and his books.

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