The Author Snapshot

First Activity- Highlight or underline important contextual information that relates to the Novel’s construction.

John Marsden was born in Victoria, Australia in 1950. He went to many different primary schools, and
from an early age enjoyed the journeys into magical worlds that reading could provide. His teachers in Grade 4
and Grade 6 encouraged him to write, and at the age of nine he decided he wanted to become an author.
For seven years he attended The King's School Parramatta, a strict military school in Sydney, and from there
went on to the University of Sydney. However, he soon decided that a career in law looked too boring, so he
dropped out and drifted around for nearly 10 years, trying different jobs, and earning just enough money to
support himself.
When he was 28, he began a teaching course, which he loved from the start. Embarking on a teaching
career, he also became more and more interested in writing, and in 1987 succeeded in getting his first book, "So
Much to Tell You", published. A string of huge hits followed, highlighted by the Tomorrow series and Ellie
chronicles. John has now sold more than 2 1/2 million books in Australia alone, but is an international
best-seller, with many major awards to his credit.
John's interest in education has never waned. In 1998 he bought the Tye Estate, 850 acres of natural
bush, on the northern edge of Melbourne, and later added the property next door. For eight years he ran
enormously popular writers' courses and camps at Tye, before starting his own school there, Candlebark, in
2006.
Candlebark is a P-8 school, which has been described by John as "somewhere between Steiner and The
Simpsons". It’s friendly, lively and positive atmosphere has resulted in such early success that it has a four-year
waiting list.

Second Activity- Fill in the blanks from direct quotes from John Marsden or summarise his response in your own words.

1st question asked- “Through the novel of Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden and the movie
adaptation, have we raised a generation in fear of invasion?”

John Marsden response...

● “War is a useful ____________, in the books, for putting young people under pressure and seeing
how they would ___________ with that pressure. War is great for a novelist because you see, everything is
______________ in a war situation. If two people fall in love in the middle of war, that is more
______________.”

2nd question asked- “Do you think it would be harder in this more politically correct day and age, fair to say, to write
about young kids fighting against what appears to be an Asian invading force?”

John’s response (Summarise)…

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

3rd question asked- “What is the role of fiction in face of the issues we are facing as a (Australian) culture?

John Marsden response...

● “In writing the Tomorrow series, I wanted to show people that ___________ Australians, who are

treated with ____________ were actually capable of _______________.”