Book Week at the Adventist primary school in the Perth suburb of Victoria Park had an extra note of celebration this year, with the launch of Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully, written by Year 3 teacher Simone Field. Mrs Field was joined by fellow teachers and chaplains from the school to dress as characters from her book as part of the school’s Book Week costume parade on August 23.
“Our school is very close-knit and I can take for granted that I will have the support of the people I work with because they are such an amazing and lovely group of people,” said Mrs Field. “But to have everyone excited to dress up as my characters was really special—and pretty fun.”
With 24 years of teaching experience, Mrs Field has also won writing awards for short stories, but Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully is her first book. “Any writer draws on their life experience to deepen and enrich their stories and that is what I have done here,” she said. “Getting to see the way that kids’ characters develop and how they express themselves at different ages certainly helped to be able to write this, especially the schoolyard scenes because I work in that environment most days of the week.”
Mrs Fields said that she noticed that there were not many books for girls in the six to 10 age group that address common life challenges, such as those they might face at school. “My hope was that this book would be able to reach and help those kids who need a little more reality about how faith can work in their lives,” she reflected. She also hopes that this will be the first book in a series that will explore the lives and different experiences of each of the four girls who are the story’s main characters.
Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully includes discussion questions for each chapter in the back of the book to prompt families or classrooms to conversations about how they can apply the biblical foundations to their own lives. “My hope is that readers will see how faith can help with getting through hard things in life, getting through change and dealing with people—and that a family can be a safe place as well, to help with getting through life,” said Mrs Field.
The Book Week celebrations at Victoria Park Christian School were followed by a book launch on Saturday evening, August 24, at the Adventist Book Centre in Perth. Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully is now available from Adventist bookshops in Australia and New Zealand, or online.
