teens recommend: Savannah Spalding

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teens recommend: Savannah Spalding

Welcome, Savannah! By way of introduction, would you please tell us about your family?
I’m the oldest of 6 children. There are three boys and three girls and the youngest just turned five. I was born in Adelaide and we moved to Queensland as a family in 2008 when I was 8-years-old. 

And school?
At school, my favourite subjects are History, Legal Studies and English. I'm also doing one subject at Uni this semester as a part of a scholarship. It’s from the Justice degree and it’s called Justice and Society ...

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a delightful exploration of the nuances of family life, friendship and school

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a delightful exploration of the nuances of family life, friendship and school

ages 3 to 8 years
Henrietta is a ‘great go-getter’ with an ‘adventurous spirit’ and ‘great determination’.
She’s also ‘an explorer of life, and that includes trees, bugs, animals and all mysteries.’ She’s waiting for a new baby—and hoping for a sister. She’s also starting school, making new friends, having her first sleepover and doing all the things that lucky children do at that age.

There are disappointments of course

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famous people reading: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

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famous people reading: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

This looks like a great way to spend a birthday—reading and sunbathing on a car bonnet in Martha’s Vineyard. The pic is from New York Jackie: Pictures from Her Life in the City and was taken on her 60th birthday.

She’s reading The Most Beautiful House in the World, which I gather is a bit like a cerebral version of Grand Designs! The author is architect and prolific author, Witold Ryczynski—a man of forthright and strongly held opinion, including:

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a tender hearted look at dementia and the beauty of a life lived with simple pleasures

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a tender hearted look at dementia and the beauty of a life lived with simple pleasures

ages 4 to 12 years
Angela—who gets up before daybreak—waits for a special visitor. As she waits she bakes shortbread cookies, the ‘lovely sweet smell’ reminding her of her childhood. ‘That’s why she makes them so often.’

She becomes anxious as she waits and, with ‘her heart lurching in all directions’, she tries playing along to a quiz game on television. ‘That’s when she hears a small voice behind her 

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a heart tugging look at how it feels to be different and a call to be more accomodating

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a heart tugging look at how it feels to be different and a call to be more accomodating

ages 6 years to grownup
Everyone knows what it is to feel different or misunderstood. It's part of modern life—we meet many people in many circumstances and we don’t always ‘click’. And that’s fine, mostly we just do what needs to be done and move on until we come to a place we really do fit. But, for some people, being different or misunderstood is a constant. Ivan is such a child and he tells us that he is, in fact, a crocodile:

“I look like a boy but, inside, I am a crocodile. It’s not something you can see, of course, because it’s inside.

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