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Christopher Brennan Library: Boys, Books and Breakfast

About

 

We encourage male caregivers and boys to attend together, as an opportunity to model good reading habits. This event fosters discussion about books and reading, through a range of interesting authors sharing their stories over breakfast. 

Photos

James and Bernie in conversation.

James and Bernie in conversation.

We had a light breakfast for guests.

Year 8 student Jono Allfrey introducing our guest speakers. 

Guest Speakers

GUEST SPEAKER: ALEX NOBLE (OR2020)

The inspiring story of a young man whose wisdom and strength can teach us all how to live life to the fullest, no matter what it throws at us.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Noble was a high school rugby star with a promising sporting career ahead of him when an on-field injury left him fighting for his life in the ICU. Following a four-day coma and a diagnosis of C4 quadriplegia, Alex’s first words to his brother Zac were, ‘If I fight, you fight.’ These words became a war cry as Alex’s friends, family and community rallied around him, watching in awe as he fought to regain control over his body and defy his diagnosis. From learning to breathe and move again to travelling the world, starting his own business, and even going skydiving, Alex’s story is about the power of mastering your own mind, finding happiness and taking risks to achieve your goals – no matter how out of reach they may seem.

Full of warmth, humour and insight, this is a book that will teach you principles to live your life by, written by a young man who has put them into practice.

GUEST SPEAKER: GARY LONESBOROUGH 

Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin writer, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Growing up a massive Kylie Minogue and North Queensland Cowboys fan, Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience working in Aboriginal health, the disability sector (including experience working in the youth justice system) and the film industry, including working on the feature film adaptation of Jasper Jones.

His debut YA novel, THE BOY FROM THE MISH, was published by Allen & Unwin in February 2021. It was published as READY WHEN YOU ARE in the U.S in 2022 by Scholastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUEST SPEAKER: BERNIE SHAKESHAFT

 

Bernie is the founder and CEO of BackTrack Youth Works in Armidale NSW. He has spent the past 25 years working and living out his passion…. catching wild dogs and wild kids. For many years he lived in the Northern Territory learning his trade in remote areas, learning the lessons of life in the bush and surrounded by wise and skillful Aboriginal men and old school stockmen.

In 2006 with his children growing up and forging their own paths in life, he was determined to turn his vision of working with the most disadvantaged young people in our communities into a reality. To keep them alive, out of jail and chasing their hopes and dreams. 2014 saw him travel overseas on a prestigious Churchill scholarship to learn from some extraordinary organisations that have helped develop the BackTrack model in Australia.

Under Bernie’s leadership, BackTrack has forged a new beginning for over a 1000 young people.Bernie takes great pride in how his vision of giving young people having a hard time a new life journey and a new beginning, is now spreading across NSW with mentoring other communities to get started using the same successful tools that have had remarkable results in Armidale.

“We’ve started something special here in Armidale.I’m proud of what has been achieved to date.The future is what I’m interested in and how we grow and extend new tracks going forward.”

Source: https://backtrack.org.au/our-team/bernie-shakeshaft/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUEST SPEAKER: JAMES KNIGHT

James Knight has worked in network television, independent documentaries and is a bestselling author. He has written twelve non-fiction books, with topics including cricket, travel, mountaineering, and human-interest biographies. He wrote THE DRAGON'S JOURNEY, an incredible story about Vietnamese boat person Duy Long Nguyen; THE MAN FROM COOLIBAH, the bestselling biography of outback legend Milton Jones; and most recently worked with Sally Faulkner on ALL FOR MY CHILDREN.

Source: https://www.hachette.com.au/james-knight/

 

 

 

 

 

Guest Speaker: Phillip Gwynne

Phillip Gwynne's first novel Deadly Unna? was a literary hit and was made into the feature film Australian Rules for which Phillip won an AFI award. The sequel, Nukkin Ya, was also published to great acclaim. 
He writes for a wide range of age groups from picture books such as Brothers From a Different Mother and junior fiction such as Jetty Rats and Michael in the Stuff Happens series, to the young adult novel Swerve, shortlisted for many awards amongst them the 2010 Prime Minister's Award and the Golden Inky.

 

Books from Collection