The next school I vis­ited dur­ing my Book Week trav­els this week was North Fitzroy Pri­mary School. The kids there were so enthu­si­as­tic about my visit that they got me to sign their arms in texta. Some wanted me to sign their fore­heads but I turned them down for fear of get­ting an angry email from a par­ent. Noth­ing would be scarier than get­ting such an email that was marked as ‘urgent’ and had a sub­ject line of You sign­ing my child’s forehead!!!

But the stu­dents were fan­tas­tic and had some great story ideas. Here are the two sto­ries the stu­dents came up with.

VOLCANO, THE HALF-MAN ROBOT

by Grade 3 and 4 students

THE KISSING ALPACA

by Grade 5 and 6 students

I was out at the very nice Aitken Col­lege in Green­vale yes­ter­day for another Book Week ses­sion. And you know you’re out of the city when there’s a wind­mill on cam­pus. Almost-in-the-country air FTW!

I did a ses­sion with the Year 6 stu­dents at Aitken Col­lege and out of the dis­cus­sion about work­shop­ping ideas and turn­ing them into sto­ries, the classes came up with their own story — a ter­rific tale (a tragi­com­edy really) called The Adven­tures of Hypo-Cat, which I am proud to present now for your enjoyment.

The dog and Hypo-Cat before the fate­ful chase that lead to the tree.

Yes­ter­day I spent the first day of Book Week at St Fran­cis of Assisi Pri­mary School in Mill Park, Vic­to­ria. The grade six stu­dents that I did ses­sions with there were keen book read­ers and keen writ­ers too. I’ve been fin­ish­ing up my school ses­sions with lit­tle lessons in story writ­ing and by the end of each ses­sion at St Fran­cis, I’d work­shopped char­ac­ters and plot with the group and together they’d writ­ten a cool lit­tle story up on the white­board. Oh, and illus­trated a front cover for their story too!

And it is with great plea­sure that I now present the sto­ries as writ­ten (and illus­trated) by the grade six stu­dents of St Fran­cis of Assisi Pri­mary School.

THE GOOD WEREWOLF

by 6L

MISSING THE HORN!!!

by 6W

THE RAPPING CAMEL

by 6M and 6S

TIME FOOTBALL

by 6P

This week is offi­cially Book Week at schools and libraries across Aus­tralia. And Book Week means author vis­its — which are just as much fun for the author as they are for the kids.

Today I was out at St Fran­cis of Assisi Pri­mary School in Mill Park all day doing ses­sions with groups of grade 6 stu­dents. We were in a small hall as their new library (as seen below) is halfway to com­ple­tion. The stu­dents were all really enthu­si­as­tic and cre­ative — which was espe­cially good for the part of the ses­sion where we all write a story together. I’ll be blog­ging the short sto­ries we came up with soon.

And since it’s Book Week I asked the kids of St Fran­cis of Assisi Pri­mary School to each bring in their favourite book to show and tell me why they like it so much. Book club style! Here are just some of books that were brought in, along with the rea­sons for their favourtism.

Matilda by Roald Dahl
Because Matilda does what she wants.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kin­ney
Because it relates to a kid who doesn’t want to be at school and just wants to have fun.

Alice in Won­der­land by Lewis Car­roll
Because it has funny char­ac­ters and weird words like ‘Jabberwocky’.

Go Girl! Danc­ing Queen by Thalia Kalkip­sakis
Because I like dancing.

It’s OK I’m Wear­ing Really Big Knick­ers by Louise Ren­ni­son
Because of how she wants a boyfriend and how she relates to herself.

Specky Macgee by Felice Arena and Garry Lyon
Because he plays footy and it’s excit­ing and sporty.

Par­vana by Deb­o­rah Ellis
Because it shows how other peo­ple live in Afghanistan and the Mid­dle East.

Harry Pot­ter and the Deathly Hal­lows by J.K. Rowl­ing
Because it’s all revealed.

Scor­pia: Alex Rider #5 by Anthony Hor­rowitz
Because he finds out all about his life of spy­ing and mysteries.

Halo: Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund
Because it’s sci-fi and it’s got action.

The Guin­ness Book of World Records
Because I like see­ing peo­ple who have chal­lenged themselves.

Skul­dug­gery Pleas­ant: Dark Days by Derek Landy
Because it has lots of action and mystery.

Hat­ing Ali­son Ash­ley by Robin Klein
Because it has funny jokes and it’s soppy.

The Sim­ple Gift by Steven Her­rick
Because of the mys­tery, char­ac­ters and set­tings includ­ing train car­riages, lakes and McDonalds.

New Moon by Stephe­nie Meyer
Because Bella has to choose between two guys.

Angus, Thongs and Per­fect Snog­ging by Louise Ren­ni­son
Because it’s a funny book about a girl who wants a per­fect life.

Dear Dumb Diary by Jim Ben­ton
Because it’s about a girl who has bad luck.

Eldest by Christo­pher Paolin
Because it’s a good book about drag­ons and battles.

Sadako and the Thou­sand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
Because it’s a true story.

Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda
Because it has adven­ture and a weird hero.

Chi­nese Cin­darella by Ade­line Yen Mah
Because it’s a true story.

Cap­tain Under­pants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman by Dav Pilkey
Because it has a weird superhero.

Specky Macgee and the Bat­tle of the Young Guns by Felice Arena and Garry Lyon
Because I like footy and it’s fun reading.

Drowned Wednes­day: The Keys to the King­dom #3 by Garth Nix
Because it has inter­est­ing char­ac­ters like giant talk­ing rats.

The Dead of the Night by John Mars­den
Because it’s all action, cap­ti­vat­ing and sucks you in.

Ghost­girl by Tonya Hur­ley
Because she tries to be pop­u­lar but she dies.

Harry Pot­ter and the Philospher’s Stone by J.K. Rowl­ing
Because it’s Harry Potter!!!

The Fall: Sev­enth Tower #1 by Garth Nix
Because it’s set in a dif­fer­ent world that no one’s ever heard of before.

This week the fab­u­lous, genius-man Joss Whe­don is com­ing to Mel­bourne. He’s appear­ing at the open­ing night of the Mel­bourne Writ­ers’ Fes­ti­val and Gwhedeeks (think Gleeks, but Whedon-Geeks) like me are very excited. Despite vis­it­ing Mel­bourne a few times, Joss has never par­taken in a pub­lic event like he’ll be doing this Fri­day evening. Con­se­quently, the event sold out very soon after tick­ets went on sale and come Fri­day the Mel­bourne Town Hall will be full of thou­sands of Gwhedeeks.

There will be plenty of Whe­don projects to talk about on the night includ­ing Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, Fire­fly, Doll­house, The Avengers, the Whedon-directed episode of Glee and, of course, Buffy the slayer of the vampyres.

Speak­ing of which, it’s been a long time Buffy first aired. And the spin-off show Angel with its many com­ple­men­tary sto­ry­lines and cross-over episodes, really needs to be watched in har­mony with Buffy for the full Buffy­verse effect. Unlike giv­ing some­one five sea­sons of The Wire and say­ing ‘Watch this from start to fin­ish,’ watch­ing Buffy/Angel from start to fin­ish isn’t such a straight­for­ward exercise.

And so, I present my com­plete list­ing of Buffy and Angel episodes and the best order in which to view them. Of course, there are many ways you could watch both shows, includ­ing watch­ing the shows one at a time. But this way you get to enjoy the story arcs than span both shows and fol­low char­ac­ters as they crossover between worlds. Plus you get to watch the show pretty much as it aired. The way the cre­ator orig­i­nally intended!

The Com­plete and Most Ful­fill­ing Buffy & Angel Episode Sequence

BUFFY SEASON 1

BUFFY SEASON 2

BUFFY SEASON 3

and then

BUFFY SEASON 4 & ANGEL SEASON 1

• Buffy ‘The Fresh­man’ (S04E01)
• Angel ‘City Of…’ (S01E01)
• Buffy ‘Liv­ing Con­di­tions’ (S04E02)
• Angel ‘Lonely Hearts’ (S01E02)
• Buffy ‘The Harsh Light of Day’ (S04E03)
• Angel ‘In The Dark’ (S01E03)
• Buffy ‘Fear Itself’ (S04E04)
• Angel ‘I Fall to Pieces’ (S01E04)
• Buffy ‘Beer Bad’ (S04E05)
• Angel ‘A Room With A View’ (S01E05)
• Buffy ‘Wild at Heart’ (S04E06)
• Angel ‘Sense and Sen­si­tiv­ity’ (S01E06)
• Buffy ‘The Ini­tia­tive’ (S04E07)
• Angel ‘The Bach­e­lor Party’ (S01E07)
• Buffy ‘Pangs’ (S04E08)
• Angel ‘I Will Remem­ber You’ (S01E08)
• Buffy ‘Some­thing Blue’ (S04E09)
• Angel ‘Hero’ (S01E09)
• Buffy ‘Hush’ (S04E10)
• Angel ‘Part­ing Gifts’ (S01E10)
• Buffy ‘Doomed’ (S04E11)
• Angel ‘Som­nam­bu­list’ (S01E11)
• Buffy ‘A New Man’ (S04E12)
• Angel ‘Expect­ing’ (S01E12)
• Buffy ‘The I in Team’ (S04E13)
• Angel ‘She’ (S01E13)
• Buffy ‘Good­bye Iowa’ (S04E14)
• Angel ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ (S01E14)
• Buffy ‘This Year’s Girl’ (S04E15)
• Angel ‘The Prodi­gal’ (S01E15)
• Buffy ‘Who Am I?’ (S04E16)
• Angel ‘The Ring’ (S01E16)
• Buffy ‘Super­star’ (S04E17)
• Angel ‘Eter­nity’ (S01E17)
• Buffy ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ (S04E18)
• Angel ‘Five By Five’ (S01E18)
• Buffy ‘New Moon Ris­ing’ (S04E19)
• Angel ‘Sanc­tu­ary’ (S01E19)
• Buffy ‘The Yoko Fac­tor’ (S04E20)
• Angel ‘War Zone’ (S01E20)
• Buffy ‘Primeval’ (S04E21)
• Angel ‘Blind Date’ (S01E21)
• Buffy ‘Rest­less’ (S04E22)
• Angel ‘To Shan­shu in L.A.’ (S01E22)

BUFFY SEASON 5 & ANGEL SEASON 2

• Buffy ‘Buffy Vs Drac­ula’ (S05E01)
• Angel ‘Judg­ment’ (S02E01)
• Buffy ‘Real Me’ (S05E02)
• Angel ‘Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been’ (S02E02)
• Buffy ‘The Replace­ment’ (S05E03)
• Angel ‘First Impres­sions’ (S02E03)
• Buffy ‘Out of My Mind’ (S05E04)
• Angel ‘Untouched’ (S02E04)
• Buffy ‘No Place Like Home’ (S05E05)
• Angel ‘Dear Boy’ (S02E05)
• Buffy ‘Fam­ily’ (S05E06)
• Angel ‘Guise Will Be Guise’ (S02E06)
• Buffy ‘Fool For Love’ (S05E07)
• Angel ‘Darla’ (S02E07)
• Buffy ‘Shadow’ (S05E08)
• Angel ‘The Shroud of Rah­mon’ (S02E08)
• Buffy ‘Lis­ten­ing to Fear’ (S05E09)
• Angel ‘The Trial’ (S02E09)
• Buffy ‘Into the Woods’ (S05E10)
• Angel ‘Reunion’ (S02E10)
• Buffy ‘Tri­an­gle’ (S05E11)
• Angel ‘Rede­f­i­n­i­tion’ (S02E11)
• Buffy ‘Check­point’ (S05E12)
• Angel ‘Blood Money’ (S02E12)
• Buffy ‘Blood Ties’ (S05E13)
• Angel ‘Happy Anniver­sary’ (S02E13)
• Buffy ‘Crush’ (S05E14)
• Angel ‘The Thin Dead Line’ (S02E14)
• Buffy ‘I Was Made To Love You’ (S05E15)
• Angel ‘Reprise’ (S02E15)
• Buffy ‘The Body’ (S05E16)
• Angel ‘Epiphany’ (S02E16)
• Buffy ‘For­ever’ (S05E17)
• Angel ‘Dishar­mony’ (S02E17)
• Buffy ‘Inter­ven­tion’ (S05E18)
• Angel ‘Dead End’ (S02E18)
• Buffy ‘Tough Love’ (S05E19)
• Angel ‘Belong­ing’ (S02E19)
• Buffy ‘Spi­ral’ (S05E20)
• Angel ‘Over the Rain­bow’ (S02E20)
• Buffy ‘The Weight of the World’ (S05E21)
• Angel ‘Through the Look­ing Glass’ (S02E21)
• Buffy ‘The Gift’ (S05E22)
• Angel ‘There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb’ (S02E22)

BUFFY SEASON 6 & ANGEL SEASON 3

• Angel ‘Heart­throb’ (S03E01)
• Angel ‘That Vision Thing’ (S03E02)
• Angel ‘That Old Gang of Mine’ (S03E03)
• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part One’ (S06E01)
• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part Two’ (S03E02)
• Buffy ‘After Life’ (S06E03)
• Angel ‘Carpe Noctem’ (S03E04)
• Buffy ‘Flooded’ (S06E04)
• Buffy ‘Life Ser­ial’ (S06E05)
• Angel ‘Fred­less’ (S03E05)
• Buffy ‘All The Way’ (S06E06)
• Angel ‘Billy’ (S03E06)
• Buffy ‘Once More With Feel­ing’ (S06E07)
• Angel ‘Off­spring’ (S03E07)
• Buffy ‘Tab­ula Rasa’ (S06E08)
• Angel ‘Quick­en­ing’ (S03E08)
• Buffy ‘Smashed’ (S06E09)
• Angel ‘Lul­laby’ (S03E09)
• Buffy ‘Wrecked’ (S06E10)
• Angel ‘Dad’ (S03E10)
• Buffy ‘Gone’ (S06E11)
• Angel ‘Birth­day’ (S03E11)
• Buffy ‘Dou­ble­meat Palace’ (S06E12)
• Angel ‘Provider’ (S03E12)
• Buffy ‘Dead Things’ (S06E13)
• Angel ‘Wait­ing In the Wings’ (S03E13)
• Buffy ‘Older and Far Away’ (S03E14)
• Angel ‘Cou­plet’ (S03E14)
• Buffy ‘As You Were’ (S06E15)
• Angel ‘Loy­alty’ (S03E15)
• Buffy ‘Hell’s Bells’ (S06E16)
• Angel ‘Sleep Tight’ (S03E16)
• Buffy ‘Nor­mal Again’ (S06E17)
• Angel ‘For­giv­ing’ (S03E17)
• Buffy ‘Entropy’ (S06E18)
• Angel ‘Dou­ble or Noth­ing’ (S03E18)
• Buffy ‘See­ing Red’ (S06E19)
• Angel ‘The Price’ (S03E19)
• Buffy ‘Vil­lains’ (S06E20)
• Angel ‘A New World’ (S03E20)
• Buffy ‘Two To Go’ (S06E21)
• Angel ‘Bene­dic­tion’ (S03E21)
• Buffy ‘Grave’ (S06E22)
• Angel ‘Tomor­row’ (S03E22)

BUFFY SEASON 7 & ANGEL SEASON 4

• Buffy ‘Lessons’ (S07E01)
• Buffy ‘Beneath You’ (S07E02)
• Angel ‘Deep Down’ (S04E01)
• Buffy ‘Same Time, Same Place’ (S07E03)
• Angel ‘Ground State’ (S04E02)
• Buffy ‘Help’ (S07E04)
• Angel ‘The House Always Wins’ (S04E03)
• Buffy ‘Self­less’ (S07E05)
• Angel ‘Slouch­ing Toward Beth­le­hem’ (S04E04)
• Buffy ‘Him’ (S07E06)
• Angel ‘Super­sym­me­try’ (S04E05)
• Buffy ‘Con­ver­sa­tions With Dead Peo­ple’ (S07E07)
• Angel ‘Spin the Bot­tle’ (S04E06)
• Buffy ‘Sleeper’ (S07E08)
• Angel ‘Apoc­a­lypse, Now­ish’ (S04E07)
• Buffy ‘Never Leave Me’ (S07E09)
• Angel ‘Habeas Corpses’ (S04E08)
• Buffy ‘Bring On the Night’ (S07E10)
• Angel ‘Long Day’s Jour­ney’ (S04E09)
• Buffy ‘Show­time’ (S07E11)
• Angel ‘Awak­en­ing’ (S04E10)
• Buffy ‘Poten­tial’ (S04E12)
• Angel ‘Sou­less’ (S04E11)
• Buffy ‘The Killer in Me’ (S07E13)
• Angel ‘Cal­vary’ (S04E12)
• Buffy ‘First Date’ (S07E14)
• Buffy ‘Get It Done’ (S07E15)
• Angel ‘Sal­vage’ (S04E13)
• Buffy ‘Sto­ry­teller’ (S07E16)
• Angel ‘Release’ (S04E14)
• Buffy ‘Lies My Par­ents Told Me’ (S07E17)
• Angel ‘Orpheus’ (S04E15)
• Buffy ‘Dirty Girls’ (S07E18)
• Angel ‘Play­ers’ (S04E16)
• Angel ‘Inside Out’ (S04E17)
• Buffy ‘Empty Places’ (S07E19)
• Angel ‘Shiny Happy Peo­ple’ (S04E18)
• Angel ‘The Magic Bul­let’ (S04E19)
• Buffy ‘Touched’ (S07E20)
• Angel ‘Sac­ri­fice’ (S04E20)
• Angel ‘Peace Out’ (S04E21)
• Angel ‘Home’ (S04E22)
• Buffy ‘End of Days’ (S07E21)
• Buffy ‘Cho­sen’ (S07E22)

and then the final (and most won­der­ful) sea­son of Angel…

ANGEL SEASON 5

Happy view­ing. Or re-viewing! NB: I have updated the begin­ning of Buffy S06/Angel S03 after some good cor­rec­tions came through from ‘Morda’ in the com­ments sec­tion (where there are spoil­ers, so beware!)

Oh and if you’ve never seen it before, check out this video of Joss per­form­ing one of his songs from the musi­cal DVD com­men­tary to Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog dur­ing a live episode of This Amer­i­can Life. Great stuff.