Kristin Darell
Kristin Darell is the author of the best-selling junior fiction novel The Kick-Off, which launched her popular Football Fever series.
After working as a broadcast journalist for twenty years, she now spends all her time in the world of children’s books. She is either writing stories, talking to kids and teachers, or helping find better ways to help young people love stories through her work with the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation.
But she is still passionate about non-fiction and loves sharing stories of her time as a producer and reporter with students to encourage them to be curious and share true stories of their own.
Kristin believes we all have a story to tell – whether real or made up – and wants to help everyone to be brave enough to let their imagination soar.
She will be releasing an exciting new junior fiction series in September 2024.
Author talks for Kids
Kristin’s author talks are engaging, entertaining and informative – inspiring kids to dive into the amazing world of stories. Drawing on her background in television, she uses fun visuals and interactive activities to explore the writing process and inspire kids to find their own stories from real life or their imagination. Kids will leave the talk with new tools and inspiration to dive into books, reading and writing.
Writing Workshops for Kids
Do you ever wonder where story ideas come from? Have you ever invented a character and wondered what to do next? Do you love writing, but don’t know where to start? Join children’s author and former broadcast journalist Kristin Darell as she helps build writing confidence and skills. In a session tailored to the class needs, Kristin uses fun activities to explore different aspects of the writing journey, including finding ideas, plotting and planning, setting and creating believable characters.
Making Non-Fiction Fun – Talks and Workshops
After working as a journalist for more than 20 years, Kristin loves sharing her experience as a Television reporter and producer to support students with their non-fiction writing journey. Through fun and interactive workshops and talks, Kristin looks at fact versus opinion, bias, interview techniques and why we should all look past the headlines. Students will be inspired to ask curious questions and understand the importance of sharing stories that are true.
Workshop examples
- Building believable characters
- Where do story ideas come from?
- Writing from different points of view
- Adding fact to fiction (writing about what you love)
- Writing as a Team
- Write-a-Book-in-a-Day (WABIAD) Preparation
Kristin is happy to develop a workshop to suit your school’s specific focus areas – just ask!
Recent festivals & conferences include:
May 2024: Sydney Writers’ Festival – In Conversation with Morris Gleitzman
May 2024: State Library of NSW LitUp! Conference – Presenter
August 2023: Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival – Host & Participant (Turning Fact into Fiction)
June 2022: Chair of the Aspiring Writers Panel at the 2022 Kids & YA Festival, WritingNSW
June 2022: ScribeTribe host at the Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival
July 2021: Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival – Reporting & Non-Fiction for Lower Primary
March 2021: MC and moderator for Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation Summit
July 2020: Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival – Non-Fiction for Stage 2 “Heroes”
Testimonials
Our students enjoyed an interactive and fun-filled session with Kristin Darell. The talk was so beautifully designed to suit the needs of our students and was thoroughly enjoyed by our whole Primary school community. Students really enjoyed learning about her writing and character development process, teachers also found it so valuable in the way she directly supported classroom learning about writing. Kristin also shared about her life journey as a writer which made it personal, interesting and accessible for students, especially when they were able to enjoy so many wonderful photos of her childhood, family and pets. I can highly recommend an author visit with Kristin for Primary students. Fun and educational all in one!
Loreto Normanhurst – August 2023Kristin visited our Year 3 students recently to share latest release of her book in her Football Fever series. Her passion, enthusiasm and energy were contagious among all who were there. Students were encouraged to start creating as she shared her passion for reading and why she started writing. Connections were easily made between the Year 3s and her books Football Fever, a popular sport among the students at school and they could all relate to being a team player. Kristin catered to the age group appropriately and had the students wanting to know more, in fact it was a struggle to get them out the door for lunch. Engaging and fun activities encouraged student participation. I highly recommend Kristin visiting your school.
Barker College - March 2023The students thoroughly enjoyed Kristin’s author visit to our school today. She was very entertaining and had the girls in stitches! Kristin also spoke to the girls about the writing process, how to get story ideas and how to build and flesh out characters. All the students loved Kristin’s talk!
Ravenswood School for Girls - March 2023Kristin was fantastic as she launched Book 3 in her series with our Year 3 girls. Her interactive presentation had them all begging to be involved and they absolutely loved hearing about her pets, family, who she’s met and worked with and where else she gets her ideas from. The girls were buzzing all day and our PDHPE teachers loved the positive impact her visit has had on their lessons too.
Tara Anglican School for Girls - March 2023We were delighted to welcome author Kristin Darell to St Martin’s Catholic School in early October. Our Stage 2 and 3 students thoroughly enjoyed listening to Kristin share stories about her life, her passion for writing and her latest chapter book series, Football Fever. She wowed us with her smile, her great sense of humour and her enthusiasm for story-telling. A huge thank you to Kristin for inspiring our budding readers and writers. We now have a signed copy of her first book, The Kick Off, in our library which students are fighting over!
St Martin’s Catholic Primary School - October 2022
Football Fever 4: Gala Day
Football Fever 3: Next Level
Football Fever 2: Half-Time Heroes
Football Fever1: The Kick-off
Into Tordon
New South Wales
Speaker type
- Author
- Virtual visits
Links
