05 Seven: The Series

Shane Peacock

Ontario

Richard Scrimger

Ontario

John Wilson

British Columbia

Shane Peacock, Ontario

Shane Peacock is an award-winning novelist, playwright, journalist and television screenwriter. His bestselling series for young adults, The Boy Sherlock Holmes, has been published in 10 countries in 12 languages and has appeared on more than 40 shortlists. Shane lives in the countryside north of Cobourg, Ontario. Read more

Richard Scrimger, Ontario

Richard Scrimger is the award-winning author of more than 15 books for children and adults. His books have been translated into Dutch, French, German, Thai, Korean, Portuguese, Slovenian, Italian and Polish. The father of four children, he has written humorous pieces about his family life for the Globe and Mail and Chatelaine. His latest novel is Ink Me. Read more

John Wilson, British Columbia

John Wilson has almost two dozen books to his credit, including novels and non-fiction for kids, teens and adults. From lost Arctic explorers in the Governor General’s Award nominated The Alchemist’s Dream to holy Crusaders in the acclaimed The Heretic’s Secret series, Wilson has brought excitement and adventure to historical moments from across the globe. His latest title, I Am Canada: Shot at Dawn, explores life in the horrific trenches of World War I from the perspective of a shell-shocked Canadian soldier. Read more

Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Granville Island Stage
$17 / $8.50 for student groups

Click here to order school group tickets.

A unique and ambitious series is launching just days before this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest—seven Young Adult novels published simultaneously, stemming from the fictional instructions of a dying man to his seven teenaged grandsons. Each grandson is thrust into challenging and sometimes dangerous events to fulfill his grandfather’s wishes—ranging from tattooed gangs close to home, to near-impossible tasks set in Iceland, France, Spain or Tanzania. Three of the seven exceptional Canadian authors chosen to write these stories will talk about their part in this unusual project. Readers can look forward to Scrimger’s sense of humour, Peacock’s dark plotting and Wilson's powerful evocation of history.

Suitable for grades 7–10

View the study guide for this event.

Seven: The Series

Curriculum Connections:

Language Arts: creative writing process, plot and character development

Activities: Creating Well-Developed Characters

Author Bios
(5 minutes)

Show students that on the dust jackets of most books, there is a short author “bio”—short for “biography”—in which the author talks about him or herself a bit. Read the authors bios to the class. Note that these are written in the third person. Tell students they now have 2–3 minutes to write their own bios in the third person, including as much detail about themselves as possible. They must hold onto their bios for later.
Ask students, “when you just wrote your author bios, you had to really think about what makes you ‘you,’ but did you think about what would make someone want to read about you? Today we’re going to learn what kinds of characters make up a story, and how to make them interesting.”

Who Makes the Story?
(20 minutes)

Lead students in a brief discussion of the characters from the books (above) and ask what each one’s words and actions show about them. Ask, “what clues let you know which characters are antagonists? Protagonists? Supporting characters?” Tell students to keep this “cast of characters”— and the genius tricks their authors used to portray them— in their heads as they develop their own characters.

Who Makes a Story Interesting ?
(20 minutes)

Ask each student to read his or her own author bio as though it were an introduction to a character in a novel. Ask students if the bios sound like descriptions of real people. Do they sound like people you would want to read a book about? Why or why not? What more do you want to know about them? Discuss what makes a character interesting, whether it’s human, animal, or something else. Make a list on the board of “Qualities of Well-Developed Characters.” Emphasize that authors want to create characters that are well-developed or “three-dimensional,” as though reading about them were like meeting them in real life. Continue this conversation for 5 minutes.
Have each student return to their bios. Have them pretend that the bio is not for them, but for a character in a novel. You may want to give them a minute to get into character. Give students another 2 minutes to add more descriptions to make "the character" more interesting. Tell them, “The character does not have to be anything like you, but whatever you add has to make sense with what is already there because consistency is a sign of a thoroughly thought-out character.”
When students are done writing, ask them what kinds of details they added about "the character" to make him or her more developed. Create a list on the board (Examples: blue eyes, hates fish, wears glasses, etc.). Ask students how complete the image of the character was in their minds when they first started writing and how complete it is now.