The True Story: Turning Real Life into Books Kids Love
Year Levels Prep - 9
Dr Sarah Pye is a writer, speaker and environmentalist who believes a true story, told well, can change the
way people see the world. Her Wildlife Wong series takes the real work of Malaysian sun bear ecologist Dr
Wong Siew Te and turns it into adventure young readers race through, while her picture book Curious Kai
Asks Why, illustrated by Sandra Severgnin, invites even the youngest students to wonder out loud.
Recently shortlisted in the 2026 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards, Sarah's writing is
grounded in strong oral language and a genuine sense of curiosity. In this session she shows students that
nonfiction is storytelling with real stakes, and draws on her Doctor of Creative Arts research into using
narrative to engage people in conservation to reveal how facts, research and real lives become books you
can't forget.
If you or one of your students would like to ask Karen a questions please contact yabba.online@yabba.org.au.Â
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Building the Vote, Classroom Connection
- Students add a 'visual response' to the voting wall, a small drawing or collage representing each YABBA title they've read.
- Discuss: Does a book with beautiful illustrations have an unfair advantage in a popularity vote?
- Students refine their reading journal entries, now adding notes on visual elements where relevant.
- Countdown to ceremony: eight weeks to go. How many titles have students read? Set a final reading goal.
Classroom Activities
Years Foundation–2
- Read a page from Curious Kai Asks Why. Kai is always asking "why?" — what is one thing about the world
you have always wondered about? Draw it and share with a partner. - Bring in a photograph of a real animal or place. Ask: what do you think is happening here? Turn the picture into a one-sentence "true story".
- Fact or story? Read two short sentences about the same animal — one that states a fact, one that tells it
like a story. Which do you like more, and why? - Start a class 'Wonder Wall' where students add real questions about the world throughout the term.
Years 3–6
- Choose a real animal, place or person. Find three true facts, then write an opening paragraph that makes
those facts feel like the start of an adventure. - Compare how the same fact reads in an encyclopedia entry and in a Wildlife Wong–style story. What does
the storytelling add? What does it change? - Research a real Australian conservation story — an animal, a habitat, or a person doing something about it.
Write a short piece designed to make a reader care. - Look at a YABBA shortlisted book: is any of it based on something real? How do authors use real detail to
make a story believable?
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Years 7–9
- Analyse how a nonfiction writer turns research into narrative. Where does fact end and craft begin? Identify the choices the author made.
- Sarah’s research explores using story to engage people in conservation. Write a piece that both informs and moves a reader about a real issue you care about.
- Discuss the responsibilities of writing about real people and events — accuracy, fairness, and whose story it is to tell.
- Take one dry, factual sentence and rewrite it three ways to make it unforgettable. Reflect: what did each version gain, and what did it risk losing?
Victorian Curriculum Links
- Reading and Viewing: Analysing multimodal texts and the relationship between visual and written elements (Levels 1–10)
- Writing: Creating multimodal texts for authentic audiences (Levels 1–10)
- Speaking and Listening: Explaining and justifying aesthetic responses (Levels 3–10)
FISO 2.0 Alignment
- Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Multimodal literacy and critical visual analysis
- Curriculum Planning and Assessment: Differentiated tasks across year levels using a shared artistic stimulus
