Latest news with #Somervell
Otago Daily Times
07-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Author shares stories with pupils
A North Canterbury children's author has spent several days in Timaru captivating primary school pupils with rural tales — like how her dad blew up a cowshed. Jennifer Somervell, the author behind the Tales From the Farm picture book series, has been visiting schools nationwide since 2015 to share her stories and encourage children to write about their own adventures. After last visiting Timaru more than five years ago, she returned last month to hold workshops and interactive storytelling sessions for pupils at Grantlea Downs School, St Joseph's Timaru and Bluestone School. Ms Somervell said it was great to bring the workshop back to Timaru. "This was one of my best visits ever. It was so well-organised and it's wonderful when you walk in and everything works. "The children were very enthusiastic and that encouraged me as well. It was just a really lovely time." Junior pupils had fun acting out scenes like the pig escape in her book A Very Greedy Tale, while the seniors learnt more about the mechanics of storytelling and how to construct their own tales. Many of her stories are based on the experiences she had while growing up on a family dairy farm in the 1970s. "My personal favourite was the story of how my dad blew up the cowshed to make way for the latest invention in the '70s — a rotary turnstyle. One day, I secretly recorded him telling it. "We realised we had a ripper of a story, and when my sister Margery Fern put up her hand to illustrate it, a picture book was born." The pupils, teachers and librarians alike very much enjoyed her visit. Rosie Roberts, a year 5 pupil from St Joseph's said "Jennifer made me think about writing picture books. Her books made me smile and laugh". Eight-year-old J.J. from Grantlea Downs said, "when my question was asked, I felt proud because I talked to a real author". St Joseph's teacher Sara Valentine said her class had already started writing a narrative picture book using the resources from the workshop, and Bluestone School librarian Amanda Hawker said the pupils had been buzzing from the visit. It was a tremendous relief to see the pupils engaging with the workshop, Ms Somervell said. "What we writers do, the ones I've talked to anyway, is sit in their rooms, get filled with self-doubt and then talk ourselves into a bit of a slide. "It's a reality check to actually go out and hear the responses from the children and realise, 'wow, I'm actually doing something that counts'. "My childhood home was like a library, most families don't have this, so it's a lovely thing to be able to bring some story magic and capture the children's hearts with books." So far Ms Somervell had published seven farm stories, as well as two fictional stories, and had no plans of slowing down. "I'm actually writing a memoir at the moment about my relationship with my mother and I've spent the last year doing that. But I will keep doing the picture books because I enjoy them and the interaction with children. "We have a third fictional book coming out in October, Curly Cat the Acrobat." She said she was looking forward to hopefully returning to Timaru again in the future. "It's almost always on invitation from the school. One of the schools said 'see you next year', so you never know. The kids of course always want you to come back immediately. "We've done a few rural schools around Timaru but not that many, so I'm sure there are more schools out there we'd love to visit." The visits were booked and made possible via Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, with support from Creative NZ Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa. Tales From the Farm books are available at The Notebook, Kidstuff Timaru and talesfromthefarm
NZ Herald
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
On the Up: Hawke's Bay bus driver's shelter project keeps kids warm and dry
Somervell's bus is known as the 'music bus' to his young passengers – he has loaded it up with instruments for daily singalongs of Wheels on the Bus and Mary Had a Little Lam b, among other children's favourites, and plays games of I Spy with the children. Father of two of his passengers and Esk Valley farmer Mark Mitchell said the kids love the bus so much that when their parents can collect them from school the kids would still prefer to ride the school bus with Somervell. 'They want to catch the bus because Lee's awesome,' Mitchell said. 'He gives them a present or a bit of birthday cake on their birthdays and all sorts. He's a hell of a bloke.' One wet morning, Somervell saw his young passengers standing in the rain at the end of Mitchell's driveway when he decided 'this is not good enough'. 'It's pretty cold up that Esk Valley,' Somervell said. He and Mitchell discussed building a mai mai to keep the kids dry, but Somervell thought he'd 'go to the top'. 'So I came to Mitre 10,' he said. At Mitre 10 Hastings, Somervell met with advertising, events and sponsorship co-ordinator Pip George, who couldn't help but catch Somervell's enthusiasm. 'We were like, how can we not get behind this project,' she said. 'We receive a lot of requests for good and gift card, but obviously projects like this one inspire us. It's more what we do around the DIY and building and it aligns with our values here at the store.' George sent an email to EIT's School of Trades and Technology carpentry tutor Campbell Johnson, better known as CJ, asking if he and his students would be keen to help build the shelter if Mitre 10 provided the materials, to which he replied 'absolutely'. 'EIT were crucial to this project,' George said. 'Something about students helping younger students, that full circle really means something.' Six weeks later, a bright-orange bus shelter was placed at the end of Mitchell's driveway so his children and their fellow pupils could stay dry during the colder and wetter months. 'It's a hell of a lot better than my garage at home,' laughed Somervell. 'It can be seen from [State Highway 5] and that's a great thing because what we need is giving credit to Mitre 10 Hastings. 'But to have this bus shelter now to unite us all is really good and wonderful teamwork.'
