Picture Story Book Launch – Froggie’s First Day
As our Foundation students settled into their first day of primary school on Friday 4 February, we were proud to officially launch Mentone Grammar’s first-ever picture storybook, ‘Froggie’s First Day’ which was expertly written by former staff member Deborah Callahan and illustrated by James Goh.
This book follows the story of our youngest Mentone Grammar Bear, Froggie, on his first day of school. With a helping hand from his older sister Ebbie, Froggie learns that starting school can be a lot of fun, with so many exciting things to learn and great friends to make.
Created in celebration of Mentone Grammar’s Centenary year in 2023, Froggie’s First Day will be a lasting memento of this important time in our history and a way to welcome each new generation of Mentone students.
To help launch Froggie’s First Day, we were fortunate to have best-selling children’s author and Mentonian, George Ivanoff (Class of 1985) join us at the book launch and deliver a captivating speech about the power of words. George also provided the foreword for the book, writing that: “Starting school, entering an unknown environment, can be so daunting. But having this book to help prepare kids, to show them what to expect and ease potential anxiety, it is so wonderful. It shows that school isn’t frightening. It’s fun! It’s friends! It’s a world of possibilities!”
Afterwards, George joined our Principal Mal Cater, and our Marketing and Communications Officer, Steph Kinnear on a tour of the ELC and Eblana classrooms, where they read the book to our students and answered any questions about our Centenary year. As a special surprise, every student in ELC – Year 4 received their very own copy of this magical book!
George has written over 100 books for children and teenagers, including fiction and non-fiction. He has written school readers, library reference books, chapter books, novelettes, novels and even a short story collection. You can discover more about George’s work via georgeivanoff.com.au