Phil Cummings – Author visit
Recently ROAR students, Library Legends and Readers’ Cup students were treated to a visit from Phil Cummings. Phil Cummings is an award-winning author of over seventy books for children (from picture books to novels). His work has been published in Australia, New Zealand, U.S, Japan, China, South Korea, Canada, U.K. and throughout Europe. He enthused students with his workshop and introduced his “fearless writing” technique which ROAR students will in turn teach their classes. Here are some comments from the students.
Zoe – “I listened to Phil Cummings show us his rapid writing technique and was so focussed I felt like I was watching a movie because I had so many images flowing through my head.”
Ashton – “Phil is a great man who uses humour often in his stories. He also writes serious stories based on his life and experiences. The session was really meaningful. He works really fast when he is doing fearless writing.”
Mila, Sophie, Maddie, Amalie and Dante – “Phil made the session interesting. He explained the “fearless writing” clearly and explained how he got ideas for his books from real life.”
Lawson, Vincent, Gordon, Dakoda. – “We like how explained he wrote the book “Crumbs” and used a visit to a café to build a strong story. When writing he doesn’t worry about spelling mistakes. He is inclusive of all cultures.”
Sebastian, Harrison, Armani, Joseph and Edison. “We loved the humour in his audio book – “Me and Neal” and the inspiration he gets from his family and ordinary people.”
Emma – “ I loved the connection with the illustrations and end papers to the story “Crumbs” and that Phil takes notes and ideas from real life and the people he knows to build his characters and a good story.”
Sophie M – “Phil encouraged us to be brave when writing, to make a picture in your head, set a target and spread a message. Don’t fear to do things.”
Bella – “Phil Cummings is very funny. In fact, he’s fantastic!”

We loved the Shadow Judging experience as we have learnt so much that we can apply to our own creative writing.