Penguin India organises a cultural event every year called The Penguin Annual Lecture to present some of the finest minds in the world to the Indian audiences. This time they invited Jeff Kinney, author of the series Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid is very popular amongst young readers for its easy language and interesting illustrations. Jeff has written 11 books under this series and he features as the number one author in The New York Times' list. He is also amongst the top 100 most influential people according to the Times Magazine. Born in Washington D.C, Jeff moved with his family to New England in 1995 where he owns a bookstore for children called, An Unlikely Story.
Our School has always reading and writing from an early age and so this opportunity was one that was not to be missed! Thirty students from class 5 and 6 along with their teachers and two PTA representatives attended an evening lecture at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium on 6th December 2016.
[gallery link="file"]The children were extremely excited to meet their favourite author and listen to how he writes his stories. The lecture began with Jeff sharing his experiences, including his failures in life which did not deter him but provided him, instead, an impetus to fight back and prove his caliber to the world. He shared that he was refused the job of a cartoonist by one of the leading newspapers of America and how it took him 4 years to write the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid, inspired by his own childhood memories! His love for cartoons gave him the idea of writing stories where the characters are depicted as cartoons. He also spoke about many people who inspired him as a child and later, to write and draw for kids. Some of them were Carl Bark, the creator of Scrooge Mc Duck and J.K. Rowling, the writer of the Harry Potter series, besides many others. He shared several secret tricks on how to draw cartoons with easy strokes which was thoroughly enjoyed by the children.
The session ended with Jeff addressing the numerous questions asked by budding writers who were smitten by his lecture and presence! In fact, the children could hardly believe they were actually seeing their favourite author in person! Their wish to procure his autograph on the latest book of the series, Double Down could not be met due to security reasons, but this did not dampen their spirits as the chance to simply listen to this stimulating man was inspiring enough.
The next day, the children couldnt wait to share their experiences with the rest of their classmates at a class discussion where several suggestions provided by the author to enhance story writing skills were keenly shared.
Ms. Vandana Tewari.
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