In 2025, Year 7 students have been reading and studying the novel, Crow Country, by Kate Constable. Students were fortunate to have Kate Constable speak to them about the novel in the Kildare Theatre on Tuesday August 5.

Prior to speaking about her writing of the novel, Kate gave the students an overview of how she came to be a writer, her earlier writing successes, including how she and her husband were married after she wrote an early novel which had a character in it that was based on himself.

Kate spoke at length about the background to writing Crow Country, which is set in Boort, Victoria, and how she wrote a novel with a First Nation’s story by a non-Indigenous author. She talked about the research she did into the service First Nation’s soldiers gave to the Australian army during World War two and how they were often treated after the war. This research enabled Kate to create and explore key characters in her novel. Crow Country has been a popular novel studied in schools for a number of years and after the presentation, there was a line of over sixty students queuing up to have their novels signed by Kate.

This was an invaluable presentation that would enhance the students’ appreciation and understanding of the novel.

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Mr Ryan
Library Manager