Barry Jonsberg war am 09.09.19 in der Aula

Am 9. September hatten Schülerinnen und Schüler der Jahrgangsstufen 8 bis 10 die Gelegenheit, einen australischen Kinder- und Jugendbuchautor persönlich kennenzulernen. Der in England geborene Barry Jonsberg hat zunächst als Lehrer gearbeitet, bevor er sich ganz auf das Schreiben konzentriert hat. Mittlerweile ist er einer der renommiertesten Kinder- und Jugendbuchautoren Australiens. In seinem knapp einstündigen Vortrag hat er etwas aus seinem neuen Roman A Song Only I Can Hear (deutsch: Was so in mir steckt) vorgelesen, aber vorwiegend auf sehr unterhaltsame Art und Weise von seinem Leben als Schriftsteller erzählt und die zahlreichen Fragen aus dem Publikum beantwortet. Vielen Dank an Barry Jonsberg, an Frau Wolf vom cbj-Verlag und an die Stadtbibliothek Buxtehude für dieses phantastische Angebot!

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Barry Jonsberg is an Australian author and teacher who was born in Liverpool. He earned two degrees in English and Psychology from Liverpool University and was a college lecturer before moving to Australia in 1999.

Before he started writing books, he worked as a teacher. He studied boring books as the students and said to himself “I could probably write something better than this”. His first book “Nativity” was named after the main character in it. It´s about a 12-13 year old girl who felt alone since nobody talked to her. One day a new girl came into her class and sat next to her. One day a new girl came into her class and sat next to her. She asked her what her name was and told her hers. Nativity was surprised to hear a person talking to her. They became friends. At the end of the story the house of the new girl disappears and it´s clear that she isn´t from this planet. When Jonsberg's wife read this book for the first time, she said it was rubbish and the publishing house didn’t want to print it.

A women named Erica W. called Jonsberg one day and told him that she had read his book “Nativity”. She didn't want to publish it, but she wanted him to write another book, because she liked the way he wrote. That's why he wrote his second book “The whole business with Kiffo and Pitbull” which became a success. After 15 months it was finished and published.

Another success was the book called “H IS FOR HAPINESS”. His first book was made into a film. Jonsberg is very proud of it. By the way, he is in this film for two seconds. He walked on the red carpet with famous actors (also his favourite) and paparazzi took photos of him.

The last book he finished is called “A song only I can hear”. It’s a love story with all sorts of levels and one twist in it. It's a comedy about a teen boy who is falling in love for the first time. He meets the “perfect” girl at school and during classes he looks at her the whole time.

In general Jonsberg has 22 books in 15 years and in 20 different countries. But from his point of view you can't earn a lot of money with this job. Neverthe less I guess he loves his job and has fun with it.

Erika Dollinger und Hira Cakmak