St Joseph's students enjoy myths and legends stories from Lari

During her visit Lari shared her love of myths, folklore and adventure stories with a group of pupils from the Dunloy school.

The tour was sponsored by Scottish Friendly Assurance and organised by Scottish Book Trust.

BookTrust Northern Ireland and Education Authority Schools Library service worked closely with Scottish Book Trust to select schools and support the tour.

Inspired by myths, legends and folklore from her native Scotland and beyond, Lari’s visit was varied, inspiring and full of interactive fun.

Pupils took part in an adventure story workshop, looking at structure, plot points and creating tension.

Lari also shared her new adventure series of books, Spellchasers: The Beginner’s Guide to Curses and retell myths that have inspired her own writing, encouraging pupils to rewrite their own favourite myths in return.

Lari said: “I’ve always been inspired by mythology and magic, and I’m keen to share a few of my favourite Scottish stories!

“This was particularly exciting for me to be talking about how and why I write, because the second book in my Spellchasers trilogy has just been published, so I have been sharing that and chatting to pupils about writing adventure stories.

“Hopefully, they’ll be writing their own exciting and magical stories long after I head back home across the Irish Sea!”

Calum Bennie, Communications Manager at Scottish Friendly, funders of the tour, continued: “Scottish Friendly is thrilled to bring the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour to Northern Ireland for the very first time. We’re doubly thrilled to be hosting Lari Don on this tour. Children love nothing more than a great adventure story and to hear and see Lari speak in person will make for a spell-binding impression on pupils across Northern Ireland.”

Scottish Friendly has sponsored the programme for the past 19 years, touring some of the finest children’s authors and illustrators including Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell, Malorie Blackman, Michael Rosen, Jacqueline Wilson, Melvin Burgess, Steve Cole, Michael Morpurgo and Julia Donaldson.

Liz Canning, Northern Ireland Manager of BookTrust added: “We’re pleased to support Scottish Book Trust on their Northern Ireland tour and are delighted that our reading partners are visiting schools with storyteller Lari Don to encourage local school children to talk about their favourite books, get them excited about reading and hopefully inspire them to write their own stories.”