Published on: 12 May 2021



On Monday this week the Year 6 boys were lucky enough to be visited by local author Norman Jorgensen, creator of Jack’s Island and many more wonderful children’s novels and picture books.

Year 6 is currently using Jack’s Island as the stimulus for their Talk for Writing lessons during Term 2 so the visit was well timed.

The Year 6 boys were thrilled to hear all about Norman’s inspiration for Jack’s Island, which is set on Rottnest. Norman’s Father, Jack, lived on Rottnest during World War Two and Jack’s Island is Norman’s mostly true to life retelling of his father’s experiences living on the island throughout the early 1940s – facing what they then thought was an imminent Japanese invasion.

Mr Utting said “It was fantastic to see the boys so engaged hearing about the novel’s historical context. Seeing Norman’s photographs of the original locations on Rottnest and of each character’s real-life counterpart really gave the boys valuable insight as writers.”

The Year 6 students are looking forward to sending their completed original stories to Norman once they have been published.

Mr Jorgensen gave the boys some kind words of support and complimented their dedicated teachers “Congratulations on all the work you are putting into explaining the Life and Times of my book. That your boys are enjoying it so must also be down to you setting the scene and explaining all the old-fashioned stuff I mentioned in the story. The displays and the amount of work the kids are also doing is very impressive. I wish I was in Year 6 at Christ Church Grammar School!”