Children's authors, illustrators and storytellers took part in a series of events across Canada last week for the TD Canadian Children's Book Week, created to celebrate the importance of reading.
Kicking off the celebration, Eagle View Elementary and Sea View Elementary played host to Toronto-based author Richard Scarsbrook on the first stops of an Island-wide tour.
Scarsbrook is the award-winning author of many Young Adult novels as well as a successful poet and short story writer. He also teaches creative writing courses at George Brown College and the Humber School for Writers.
In Port Hardy, Scarsbrook gave a presentation to a large group of students before hosting a creative writing workshop for a group of 21 young writers. The writing group were given a series of prompts by the author, challenging them to start stories inspired by school, a person, a place and a conflict.
Scarsbrook told the young authors that he wanted to give them ideas for stories that they would enjoy writing, and shared some tools he himself uses when working on novels.
The group was then asked to listen to an instrumental piece by composer John Barry and describe the story that the music inspired.
Scarsbrook called the group "talented and enthusiastic young writers," and posed for photographs with students before making his way to Port Alice where he presented to Grades 4-9.
The North Island stops were followed by a trip to Campbell River on the author's first tour of the Vancouver Island.
For more on the author visit www.richardscarsbrook.com.