22/02/2021
Ivy Anderson dreams of one day becoming an author, although her dream has already come into fruition with her own story book printed.
Ivy’s Mum, Britt Anderson had her story developed into a book and thus the ‘Diary of The Best Witch (in training)’ was born.
Ivy lives at Cymbric Vale Station, she is now nine and in year five at School of the Air, but she was just eight years old when she wrote this story which took her about six months to complete and she’s already working on the second instalment.
Ivy said she has always enjoyed writing but this was the first time she wrote a novel-length story, so she said this is a bit new for her.
“I think the idea of being in charge of a character, a place and you can pretty much do anything that your imagination lets you,” she said. “I’ve always loved writing and I really like books.”
The printed books were a surprise for Ivy and an exciting one at that, “I didn’t actually know anything about it so it was a huge surprise when Mum got it printed.”
Ivy’s story is inspired by some of her favourite stories, “It’s about a witch, my Dad and I both love Harry Potter and I also really loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid so I decided to put them together to create a diary of a witch or wizard.
“There’s a few different plots happening at different times but basically it’s a witch’s first time at her new school and she fights a few monsters, she tries to help her friend after they get into a bit of trouble at school and just a lot of chaos.
“I’ve been working on a sequel, I’m going to add another character to the story and it might help make the first one make a bit more sense. I’m hoping to get that one printed too.”
Britt Anderson said she decided to get her daughter’s story printed because it’s such a rare thing to be nine and know what you want to do. “Her writing has been evolving and I can see the value in her writing and her imagination and it just made sense to me, there wasn’t an option not to.”
“With distance education it’s really difficult to have those opportunities that city kids would have, you know there’s not readings for kids to go and sit at or do workshops and things like that, there are some online but it’s not that personable type thing,” she said.
“So I just wanted her interest to still be there, I didn’t want it just to feel like it never went anywhere, I wanted to show her that if this is what she wants to do or what she enjoys then it can actually take you places, it can be a lifelong love not just a whim.”
The whole process of printing the book was done online, Britt ordered 15 books so there were enough for Ivy, as well as family and friends. “I kind of wanted it to happen now so I just went online and had a look around and I found a place, got onto them and I also found a lady to help with the cover because I really didn’t know what I wanted it to look like,” she said. “She gave me places to go and look for photos and things like that, I saw both the front and the back picture and thought it was just perfect and so then when we saw the colour in the pictures that’s when we decided on the colour of the cover so it all blends in.
Britt said Ivy was very excited upon receiving the books, “It was a good timing exercise because her older sister (Lilli) just started boarding school and when we came home from dropping her off the box was there waiting so it was perfect timing,” she said.
“It’s been all about Lilli a bit lately going to boarding school and I wanted Ivy to know we were thinking of her as well and it’s a big milestone for her so it needed to be celebrated as well.”
There has been some demand from their circle of friends, family and others wanting to purchase a copy of Ivy’s book so there are plans to get more printed and sell some copies. “We’re going to do a bit of tidying up, a bit of editing because that’s exactly how she typed it, there are no changes I haven’t edited any of it because I wanted her to see her book and you can see the evolution of her writing from the first chapter to the last and how it’s grown over the six months it took her to write.”
