Read what our borrowers have to say about our Travelling suitcases.
“The Travelling Suitcase Wooloowin State School borrowed from Book Links provided a great stimulus for our focus on Australian author/illustrator, Gregory Rogers. In our busy curriculum there are not always opportunities to do author/illustrator studies, so I have a corner in our library where I set up “Spotlight on…” displays for a number of weeks. These displays are used to focus on and draw attention to a particular author and/or illustrator. It is an opportunity to promote this author/illustrator’s work. The Gregory Rogers Travelling Suitcase provided all manner of display signs, books, DVD and realia which enhanced the display greatly. Once I had introduced the display to students, they were able to watch and ‘meet’ Greg Rogers via the DVD which was set up on a laptop for students to access before school and during lunch hours. Students were able to read his books, play a game, leaf through display books containing copies of Greg Rogers’ rough drafts and storyboards and handle realia related to the craft of illustration. Students enjoyed interacting with the display – it was something different. Travelling Suitcases are a wonderful resource which are freely available to borrow (excluding postage costs) by all schools. Teacher Librarians know that time is a precious commodity which few of us have much of, so when a resource like Travelling Suitcases comes along (where someone else has done all the hard work of collating all the items) , I can’t but highly recommend it to all libraries”.Assunta Austin, Teacher Librarian, Wooloowin State School
“We displayed the suitcase items in our ‘under the stairs’ cabinet and had many student and staff interactions around the display, discussing Jackie’s work and our favourites.
Now, it’s Narelle Oliver’s beautiful work on display in the cabinet – it’s attracted a lot of interest also! Our Year 9 Visual Art students have just finished some work on linocut and printed them, so we have displayed some of their work alongside Narelle’s – it’s been fantastic to see a deeper appreciation of Narelle’s talent as an illustrator/artist/writer develop as a result.
One of our team members, Allysa Lofthouse, had a lot of fun using her creativity to showcase both authors’ works.
The Narelle Oliver Travelling Suitcase items on display featuring some of Narelle’s linocuts and tools.
Artwork produced by students at Glasshouse Christian College using linocut techniques.
It’s been great to have the travelling suitcases in the lead up to ‘Book an Adventure’ – Book Week 2025!” – Beryl Morris, Glasshouse Christian College
From Sacred Heart School, Yeppoon – Yr 4 Teacher Sally Hebron
I chatted to the children about the Travelling Suitcases Display and this is what they said; “I liked the Travelling suitcases, they were interesting and had fantastic drawings.”
“I learned that things need to be redone.”
“It was interesting to see when the books were published, how good they were.”
“It made me want to read the books.”
“It was cool to see all the preparation in writing and publishing a book.”
“I was inspired by it because I want to be a writer.”
“It contained cool stuff.”
As a teacher I enjoyed it because it helped my students to realise that they didn’t have to have their writing completed perfectly the first time. They now understand the idea of proofreading to change and enhance their writing. I loved it.
From Taranganba State School – Lenore Olive – Librarian – Used for display
Teacher Notes – were excellent and were thorough. Great value-add for teacher. Teachers viewpoint – great Collection of Books – excellent
From FLOW Visitors Centre, Fitroy Basin Association, Old Rockhampton Post Office – Sharyn Lowth – Visitor Centre Manager
Travelling Suitcase resources gave a wonderful adjunct to Fitzroy Basin Association’s (FBA) recent published children’s book “Oh Dear” That’s My Rear” – and encouraged creation of a similar suitcase from FBA’s book production experience. The Travelling Suitcases were promoted as part of our school holiday activities in both January and Easter school holidays of 2013
The visitors explored the suitcases both formally (in planned literary activities) – and with informal visits. Great exposure was achieved with 333 visitors in January and 374 in April (comprising 201 and 230 children respectively) – with feedback from both lovers of books young or old, those inspired by the art process, and from teachers or librarians who we referred to your project as they valued, but had not necessarily heard of, the resource.
From an educators point of view in our visitors centre, the resources were invaluable for teachers on specific topics.
All in all, a most valuable addition to our interpretive and educational experience – you should be commended for this great initiative.
From Mossman State School, Miallo State School, Daintree State School, Wonga Beach State School, Julatten State School 2012
I have been taking it with me on my library circuit to share with the classes I visit. At most schools I showed them the video of Gregory talking about his work and then showed items from the case, samples of his storyboarding and sketches. We also read several of the books to various classes.
The children were enthusiastic about sharing the information found in the boxes. They pointed out the books they had read before and ones that were used in the video. A lot of the school’s copies of the books were borrowed out after the lessons as they were on display around the library. The teachers all agreed that it was great for the children to see the author’s work in this way. I think the children were quite amazed that a book without words is still an exciting story. They also liked the stories Gregory had illustrated for other authors such as Space Travellers by Margaret Wild. We had a lot of good discussion about homelessness.
We thoroughly enjoyed the box and really appreciate the effort that has gone into putting the boxes together. Hopefully we’ll be able to share some more in the future.
