It is not every day that one gets to meet a celebrated, world-renown, prize-winning author (though truth be told, it is, at LCC, an annual occurrence – courtesy of our very own librarian and the LCC Reads Committee). It isn’t every day that students are treated to the words and wisdom of a great storyteller, a master at building suspense and at fuelling reflection on social issues. It certainly isn’t every day that students are so privileged as to be taught narrative fiction by a real live author. And yet, it is precisely what LCC students got to do in October, when British author Alan Gibbons came to LCC.

Alan Gibbons is, as all of LCC knows from the chilling summer read, the author of the book Caught in the Crossfire. In front of an assembly Middle and Senior School students, he recounted in his inimitable style, the salient points of his life and career. He shared the story of when he received the Blue Peter Book Award. But Alan Gibbons is also, and perhaps above all, a teacher. He came to the grade 10 PREP class to teach us how, from a variety of known narrative techniques, we can write a story in our own personal style. Appropriately enough, since it was, after all, the month of October, of witches and warlocks and things that go bump in the night, we learned how to use tension to write a great ghost story.

It was, really, a very successful visit. –  David Elbaz ’15