Darkness, Laughter, and the In-Between: Writing with Range with Tony Flowers

Year Levels 3 - 9

Tony Flowers writes books that make you laugh and then, unexpectedly, make you think. His session explores how skilled authors hold two things at once, humour and heart, lightness and weight. Tony shares his process for finding the right tone in a story, and why being funny is actually one of the hardest things to do on the page. Students come away with a new appreciation for comedy as craft, and a sharper eye for how tone shapes a reader's experience. This is also the first session after the shortlist is released, students will have had about a week with the posters and titles, and excitement will be building.

If you or one of your students would like to ask Karen a questions please contact yabba.online@yabba.org.au. 

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Building the Vote, Classroom Connection

  • Unveil the shortlist posters properly, display them around the room and give students time to look, read blurbs, and form first impressions.
  • First-impression vote: students place a dot sticker next to whichever cover most appeals to them before they've read anything. Photograph it, you'll compare this to their final vote later.
  • Set the reading challenge for Term 2: aim to read as many shortlisted titles as possible before voting closes. Discuss: Does reading more titles make for a fairer vote?
  • Open the sealed envelopes from the Karen Foxlee session, which books students hoped would make the list. How many were right?

Classroom Activities

Years 3–6

  • Read a funny passage from Tony's work. What makes it funny, the words, the timing, or the situation?
  • Write a short scene that starts funny and ends with something unexpected, not sad, just surprising.
  • Tone sorting activity: give students sentences and ask them to rewrite each in a different tone (funny, tense, sad, formal).
  • First look at the shortlist posters, which cover makes you most curious? Which title sounds funniest? Which looks like it might surprise you? Record first impressions before you've read a word.

 

Years 7–9

  • Analyse how Tony uses comic timing in his writing. Look at sentence length, word choice, and the placement of punchlines.
  • Write a scene involving a serious topic, but approach it with warmth and humour, without diminishing the issue.
  • Research: how do authors like Tony Flowers sit within broader traditions of Australian humorous literature?
  • Shortlist is out, read the blurbs for all titles and rank them by your instinctive interest. Then set a reading plan: which will you read first, and why?

 

 

 

Victorian Curriculum Links
  • Reading and Viewing: Evaluating how language choices create tone and effect (Levels 5–10)
  • Writing: Crafting texts with deliberate tonal control (Levels 3–10)
  • Speaking and Listening: Constructing and evaluating arguments (Levels 7–10)
FISO 2.0 Alignment
  • Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Developing metacognitive awareness of authorial craft
  • Community Engagement in Learning: Connecting student voice to critical literacy