The Pirates of Cervantes.
This feisty tome came about as the outcome of a writer in residence project at the Cervantes Primary School. After Dineke and I set up the above-titled business at the town of Cervantes in January 1997 the headmaster of the local school learned that I had originally been published with a children’s book (‘The Prince & The Little Green Gnome’ – Creative Research –Perth - 1980) and promptly invited me to take up this specifically created position. I agreed on the proviso that at the conclusion of the project there would be a cost-shared self-published book for the kids to take to market.
In the event our enterprise proved a huge success wherein I provided the class with a bare-bones pirate story set against the factual history of the town with the 1844 shipwreck of the Cervantes. This ‘Ripping Yarn’ of an outcome being ‘The Pirates of Cervantes.’ Our newly created story went on to become a lively and hugely entertaining school concert play of 1998, thereby enabling the class to experience both book and play writing. Most importantly we learned that in the wake of this innovative project the entry levels into both state and regional literacy competitions leaped to an astonishing and wholly unprecedented 100%. School staff and administration were understandably delighted with this most impressive result so I decided to showcase it here in the hope of inspiring other regional communities throughout the nation to perhaps follow suit with similar literacy-enhancement programs. There will always be some willing scribe outside of the school system prepared to lend a hand with this sort of thing and they only need devote a couple of hours a week over the course of a school-term or two. Here in WA the education department has set aside provisional funding for projects such as these so willingly disposed helpers are not being asked for entirely charitable contributions. As you may imagine the rewards of such projects transcend monetary considerations. The outstanding artwork was done by Stu Smith of Graviton creations. Stu and I plan working together on another project of revamping the Gnome book before too long. The story has withstood the test of time remarkably well and deserves another airing in the marketplace.
In regard to the Pirates of Cervantes I’m sure most parents will agree such pioneering projects are of inestimable value to youngsters struggling with literacy wherein the procedure of making it fun ensures the learning process follows through automatically. For the duration of the project I made sure the class were constantly reaching for new words and expressions and took the actual writing slightly beyond what might be considered their accepted level. This method proved entirely successful in that there were no difficulties in terms of comprehension and general writing application, tasks that were undertaken with great energy and enthusiasm.
This hit the bookshops in mid December 1999 and sold into the hundreds of copies during that first week. It remains to be seen how successful it might be commercially, the focus more on the educational value than profit, but the former aspect has worked brilliantly. Better than we thought possible. Anyone thinking of running a similar project can gather enough funding from the local business community for a small print run which is all that's required.Needless to say the kids are thrilled to have their very own book out there in the marketplace. We even built a website but can't remember where on earth that might be, if in fact it still exists? Maybe it's time to build another one with a blueprint of how we managed the project.