On Friday, 6th September we, class 6b, went to the 16. Bücherpiraten-Festival in Lübeck. There we met the award winning author Barry Jonsberg who read at 11 am from his famous book “My Life As an Alphabet”.

The book tells the interesting story of a quirky girl called Candice Phee who is determined to fix the problems of all the people around her. “My Life as an Alphabet” not only is sure to make all readers laugh, but also shows the importance of family, friends and even pets.

Also present at the reading was a university student who explained the most important aspects in German. After the book reading Barry Jonsberg told us a little about his fascinating life. Before he wrote “My Life as an Alphabet” he was an English teacher in Australia. When one of his students turned in an assignment about the alphabet he decided to make his very own book about this topic. He asked the student for permission to use her interesting title “My Life as an Alphabet” for his book.
Now his book has become a movie called “H is for happiness” in which he played a small role as a background character.

Afterwards our class asked questions about his book, his inspirations, how to write and his choice of characters. However, Barry mentioned he had no inspiration but let Candice the main characters speak to him.
On our trip to Bücherpiraten we learned not only about the book “My Life as an Alphabet” but also about Barry Jonsberg`s life and his way of writing. He told us about his new book idea which we are all now anticipating.

Not only did Barry Jonsberg interest us, he also showed the true beauty of literature. All children of class 6b were able to participate in the jokes, answers and stories Barry Jonsberg told, giving each and every one of us a memory of a trip worthwhile.

Text: Gillian and Leen

Fotos: Miriam Petzold

Class 6b:
“I think the author was very nice and he is a very interesting person. It was great to follow his stories.” – Lucia

“Great that he came from Australia to Lübeck. It was fun listening to him!”  – Nils

“Barry was very cool and easy-going. I really enjoyed the reading.” –  Lisa

“The reading was very interesting and the author also explained everything in a funny way.” – Marlena

“It was interesting to find out that he just wrote the story, without making a plan about the book before.” Jette

“I liked that he did not only talk about the book, but also about his life. For example he told us that he was an English teacher and he got t