Talking texts with students #1

We've heard a lot from teachers in my newsletter lately, so for something different today, I'm throwing it over to a student! And a brilliant one, at that.

Poppy Holden is a Year 11 student from Prahran High School. She won the Stonnington What’s Your Story? competition in 2019, 2021, and 2023, and the VATE A Story in Miniature competition in 2022. She was part of the Readings Teen Advisory Board from 2023-2024. She read her work at The Wheeler Centre annual Teen Gala in 2022 and 2023. She has always loved stories—reading them and writing them.

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What is the best text you've ever studied in school, and why?

My favourite text that I studied was We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I studied it in my Year 9 Literature elective, and it completely captured my imagination.

I think because it was a genre I hadn’t explored before (gothic horror) and the writing was so immersive, I just fell in love. I went on to read many more of Shirley Jackson’s books outside of school and, would even say that this is one of my favourite books ever.