Wednesday, September 28, 2011

At a conference

I went to the ACAL conference on Tuesday and Wednesday to display the new series of PageTurners. Series #5 isn't printed yet, but they will be soon. I made up some hand made versions of the books so people could read them and get an idea.
Series #5 is on topics that are particularly Australian — they're the sort of topics that come up year after year. There's NED KELLY, PHAR LAP, GOLD, FIRE, CYCLONE TRACY, and more.
These are the hand-made covers — the final books will look like the usual PageTurners.
And some more:

We're also introducing a new level — level 4 extended, with a light green cover. These have the same number of unique words as level 4 (300 unique words) but are longer and more complex. These titles are SIMPSON AND HIS DONKEY (an ANZAC story) A HANDFUL OF SAND (a story of indigenous land rights) and NED KELLY (outlaw or hero — you decide.)
It's always a pleasure going to conferences and displaying our books. So many people come up to say "We use these books all the time," or "My students love these books," and we talk about our classes, or maybe the PageTurners website and what's on it. 
Sometimes there are people standing nearby who've never seen the books, and when they hear other people saying nice things like this, they drift closer, and start looking through the books.  
By the way, a lot of people said they'd been using RED DOG (from series 4) in conjunction with the movie that's out at the moment, but not many realized we had an interview on this blog with my friend, Janet, who actually had RED DOG hitch a ride with her.
This conference was at Victoria University, in the heart of Melbourne, on the 12th floor, so in the break I wandered out onto the terrace and took a few snaps. I'm still getting the hang of photos with an i-phone, so they're not great. But you get the idea. The photo below is looking south, across the Yarra River, away from the city. All the photos are away from the city.
This is looking to the west, down the Yarra, heading toward Port Phillip Bay.
And this is east, looking past the magnificent old Flinders St Station.
I'll post more information about the new series soon.