On Wednesday, the children joined a live talk session with famous author Marita Conlon McKenna. She talked about her early childhood memories, how she enjoyed reading Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton and Little House on The Prairie, by Laura Ingles Wilder and how she always found reading to be a comforting experience which was beneficial for calming and helping with concentration. She shared how it was her youngest daughter, who had dyslexia, who started her on the road to writing books, as she wrote her first book with very little words to help her to ‘read’.
Always interested in The Famine, she wanted to write a book her oldest daughter would enjoy so she wrote Under the Hawthorn Tree ( in 12 weeks!). She explained how a lot of the scenes in the book were inspired by her own life, including the scene where Peggy is attacked by the dogs. According to the famine birth records, Eily, Michel, Peggy and Bridget were very popular names at the time, so they became the main characters in her book.
Some amazing questions asked by several schools, including Aidan, Hollie-Rose, Meabh and Ronan.
