On November 20th, a group of S1 pupils from Smithycroft Secondary School had the fantastic opportunity to stroll over to Riddrie Public Library to engage in a session with author Ross Mackenzie.

Ross is a captivating storyteller and kept the pupils group enthralled for the whole session by sharing the memories of how he became a reader and by transporting us into the magical worlds he created. When he unveiled the storyline of his book “The Colour of Hope”, and proceeded to read a chapter of this book out loud to us, we were on the edge of our seats, curious to hear what was coming next!

The element that made Ross Mackenzie into a reader was the excitement he felt when his P5 teacher would read “The Witches”, out loud to his classroom – a great testimony to the impact expressive storytelling can have on a young mind, flicking a switch that turns a child into an enthusiastic, curious reader.

The session continued with some creative writing inspired by “The Colour of Hope”, with Smithycroft pupils having a go at finding a story as to why a villain would steal colours from the world. Here are some of the explanations the participants came up with (click on image to open a large version in a new tab)!

At the end of the session, a Q&A allowed kids to ask Ross some questions – here are some of his answers to inspire everyone! When asked how to find what story to write next and how to find a story to write, Ross’ advice was to ask questions about the world, because questions help dig out stories; a beautiful metaphor likened this to “panning for gold”, a worthy nugget of gold might appear when sifting through all the questions and ideas travelling around the imaginative mind, so just give it a try!