Six Summers of Tash & Leopold Book-Chat
by Danielle Binks
Description
A general book-chat about Six Summers of Tash & Leopold that’s also a talk about my publishing-journey and a call for supporting libraries, keeping record of history (both personal and community) and growing empathy for others. This chat can be adjusted, depending on the year-levels.
‘Nobody knows they’re in the past until they’re out of it – that what they’re experiencing is going to be history one day, a moment to try to document and remember.’ (p 228)
Six Summers of Tash and Leopold is for fans of Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia and Nova Weetman's The Secrets We Keep, as well as Danielle Binks' previous bestseller, The Year the Maps Changed - and for anyone who enjoys a big, hopeful, coming-of-age middle-grade book that features complicated families and life-changing summers.
Topics Covered:
Teacher resources: https://cdn.hachette.com.au/resources/9780734421890-teachers-resources.pdf
‘Nobody knows they’re in the past until they’re out of it – that what they’re experiencing is going to be history one day, a moment to try to document and remember.’ (p 228)
Six Summers of Tash and Leopold is for fans of Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia and Nova Weetman's The Secrets We Keep, as well as Danielle Binks' previous bestseller, The Year the Maps Changed - and for anyone who enjoys a big, hopeful, coming-of-age middle-grade book that features complicated families and life-changing summers.
Topics Covered:
- The book has big themes of History - why we document the past to better understand the present, even the difference between 'history' and 'the past', primary and secondary sources and encouraging students to record their own pasts for future posterity via the creation and keeping of time-capsules and letter-writing.
- Libraries are another big talking-point in the book, as a neighbourhood mystery unfolds and a school library's record-keeping becomes the key to investigating the past - as well as a safe haven for bookish students. Danielle is a huge supporter of 'Students Need School Libraries,' and loves to discuss the community and personal importance of libraries to everyone - as keepers of history, and ways to make knowledge and story accessible for all. Danielle is also a big-believer in promoting the ways her own stories were only able to be written, thanks to library collections for her research.
- School Refusal and Student Anxiety - both Tash & Leo are experiencing school-refusal for vastly different reasons linked to stress-induced anxieties, home-life complications and personal learning preferences. Danielle hopes that portrayals of these hurdles for students will open up conversation and empathy and she would happily discuss the portrayal and reasons why she thought it was important to represent alongside discussions of growing resilience.
Teacher resources: https://cdn.hachette.com.au/resources/9780734421890-teachers-resources.pdf
Details
Audience
Middle Grade (years 4-9)
Duration
45-60 minutes, depending on year level
Requirements
Data Projector, and screen for a PowerPoint presentation. I have a MacBook Pro laptop – and can bring it along if a school has the necessary video adaptors, cables/plug-ins to hook my laptop up for projection. OR – I can provide the Presentation on a USB stick on the day, or via DropBox well in advance. Internet connection only necessary if DropBox is the preferred method of file-transfer. No videos or .mp4 necessary. Just a PowerPoint with still slides.