Writing talent on show
Homework leads to first book
A Townsville youngster has turned a homework assignment into a new career after becoming a first-time author at the age of 11.
Luca Lewis, was inspired to take on the task after being placed into a specialised course at Ryan Catholic College, but neither her father Gavin or mother Bernadette could ever have anticipated what would happen next.
“Gavin and I knew nothing about it,” Bernadette said.
“Luca was placed into a Higher Potential Learning class, which is this new thing run by a great teacher Kim Ballinger. She really wanted to push these kids and do something a bit more than the average class. So she decided they’d all write a book.”
Bernadette said she was ‘blown away’ when she saw the final product.
“She came home at the end of the year with a book that the school had printed. It was real
ly special.” The premise of the book; a children’s story focused on living with ADHD and autism, was inspired by Luca’s younger sister, Billie, who was diagnosed with the conditions.
“I had a few different ideas on what to write about,” Luca said.
“But I didn’t really like them that much, but I just kept thinking about something
based on Billie, and how good it would be to spread awareness.”
The book, which is also fully illustrated by Luca, is titled ‘Paisley Panda’ and contains both life lessons and a number of coping strategies and methods that Luca has used with Billie in real life.
“She’s done all of this from things she sees at home, things
that she does with Billie,” Bernadette said.
“Luca and her sisters are all such big supporters to Billie. At the moment there’s so many misunderstandings about autism and ADHD. People will ask me things like ‘has she got better?’
“There’s a great sentence in the book that says ‘it’s not a disability, it’s just a different ability’ and that just brought tears to my eyes, because Billie’s had lots of struggles, but she’s also had lots of amazing things come from it.”
The family made the decision to self-publish the book soon after, with copies now available for sale online and a book launch to take place on Friday, May 5 at Mary Mckillop in Kirwan.