Author drawn to Brooklyn by pupils' helpful map
By Katie Chapman - The Dominion Post -  03/06/2010
John Connolly talks to Brooklyn School pupils




Photo right  by Robert Kitchin/The Dominion Post

LOST AND FOUND: John Connolly, author of The Book of Lost Things, at Brooklyn School after pupils wrote to him in Ireland, inviting him to visit if he was in New Zealand. He talked to them for about an hour on everything from fairytales to quantum physics, and later signed autographs.

Giving clear directions has paid off for a class of Brooklyn School pupils who have been visited by best-selling Irish author John Connolly.
The class had read his novel The Book of Lost Things, and loved it so much that they wrote him letters and drew him pictures – and just in case he wanted to come to New Zealand, they included a map showing where the country was.
The map was "very helpful", he told the pupils yesterday, but he had not brought it with him because the scale was a little off. "It was very sweet." The pictures now adorn the walls of his Dublin office.

He had been thrilled to get the messages and made a special request to visit during his book tour of Australia and New Zealand. "It was the first time that kids had done it ... It's lovely that they read something in it that's set off their imaginations," he said.


The Book of Lost Things takes a different look at fairytales through the eyes of David, who struggles with his mother's death and father's remarriage. He ends up in the fantasy world of his books and must find the king in the hopes that he can return him to his home.
The book used traditional fairytales, which were much darker than the Disney versions, he said.

Teacher Trish Blacktop said she was unsure how the children would cope with some of the gruesome themes, but they had loved it. "It ultimately has a happy ending."
Full piece at DomPost