Hayley Laurie of Gloucester Public School and Lyndy Grey of Gloucester High School organised a special book reading at their schools on Wednesday May 25.

Stig Wemyss, narrator of Andy Griffis audio books, has been touring the region as part of the Great Lakes Great Books Festival. It was during a meeting with other librarians in the region, the two learned the story narrator was coming to the area. They both decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

The entire Gloucester Public School were thoroughly entertained by the side-splitting humour of Mr Wemyss. The auditorium was filled with laughter as he played games and read stories. Audience involvement and a silly phone call to his pal, Australian children’s author Andy Griffiths were also part of the morning event. Two students had the chance to participate in a marshmallow mouth stuffing contest Chubby Bubby straight after hearing about it from one of Mr Griffiths’ books.

Gloucester High School year seven and eight students learned how to audition for a narrating job. A couple of them even had the chance to try it out for themselves. One student had to get all the answers wrong while another was asked to burp their responses.

Throughout both performances, Mr Wemyss encouraged the students to get involved with their local libraries and sign up for Borrowbox, where they can borrow ebooks and audiobooks.

“It’s a way to get students to engage in reading in different ways,” says Ms Grey.

Mr Wemyss originally trained as an actor but began developing his voice work by volunteering for Vision Australia recording audio books around 25 years ago. He began to get offers to record books for publishers and that is how he met up with Andy Griffiths, author of the Treehouses series.

The Great Books Festival has been running for over 10 years typically welcoming authors and illustrators to read to the students. A story narrator was chosen this time as a way of making it more entertaining for the kids.  

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