When eight-year-old student Barry writes a story, it is usually about dinosaurs（恐龙）because they’re cool. For 10-year-old Emily, fantasy（奇幻）books are her stories of choice while she has recently written such a story.
These are the kinds of ideas and storytelling skills that Australian writers are hoping to inspire in students getting on Russ the Story Bus, a traveling library that will make its way around schools in western Sydney and New South Wales for the next six weeks. It is one of a number of programs in the Children’s Festival of Moving Stories that started this week. The bus, which has been painted by artist Shaun Tan, has a library full of children’s books that students can take home.
Traveling with the bus each week will be a writer. James Roy, who has written books like Captain Mack and Billy Mack’s War, said much of his inspiration came from what he saw around him. “It’s really easy to think that stories are all about heroes or people who can do great things,” Roy said. “But in fact a lot of the more important stories are kids’ own stories and the things they try hard to deal with every day. I’ve been all over the world talking to kids about writing stories and it doesn’t matter where you go...the same things worry them and the same things excite them.”
This is the third year the Children’s Festival of Moving Stories has been held and the first time that Russ the Story Bus will visit faraway schools. Along with the bus, writer talks will be held at libraries in western Sydney for students.
“The fact that we can visit the schools is good for the children who may come from families where English is a second language and they don’t have many chances to read,” Clare Sawyer, head of children’s programs, said. “We hope the bus can make them think more widely, to think about where stories come from and what stories they can make up for themselves.”
【小题1】What is Russ the Story Bus?| A．An artist’s home. | B．A library on the move. | C．A story about a bus. | D．A newly-painted bus. |
| A．Stories around children. | B．Stories easy to read. | C．Stories about heroes. | D．Stories about great things. |
| A．It will have writer talks. | B．It will have more books. |
| C．It will teach writing skills. | D．It will reach faraway schools. |
| A．They have no schools to go to. | B．They may be weak in English. |
| C．They don’t like reading stories. | D．They have no chance to visit big cities. |
