Jan Latta

Jan Latta, a writer and photographer, who’s gone to Africa to take photos and record wild animals for years and made Diary of a Wildlife Photographer, for ABC. Here is some information from her own website http://www.truetolifebooks.com.au/index.htm

"In 1994, Jan came face to face with a mountain gorilla in Rwanda. The experience changed her life. When her guide said there were only 600 mountain gorillas left in the world, she decided to create books for children on endangered animals.

The first book in the True to Life series, Grandy the Gorilla, is now out of print, but Jan wants to return when it’s safe to take additional photographs. Jan went back to Africa six times to follow, lions, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, cheetahs and she went into the jungle with chimpanzees. Each time she followed animals for weeks, taking photographs and writing about the animals’ habitat. For the tiger book she travelled to India for a month and China twice for the panda book.

In 2007 the ABC asked her to write Diary of a Wildlife Photographer. All her adventures for the last 14 years have been recorded with over 300 photographs she has taken in the wild.

She is guest speaker at schools, libraries, and festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

Jan is a popular guest speaker at schools and libraries, showing 100 unique photographs, talking about endangered animals and her adventures in the wild."

Parramatta City Library is expecting Jan for the author talk on 12 January. The library has purchase all those beautiful photographic books for its children’s collection written by Jan Latta.

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Review of ‘The last night in twisted river’

Title: Last Night in Twisted River
Author: John Irving                                                                 
Sarah’s Pick
The novel opens in a logging community in remote New Hampshire in 1954. It concludes on an island in a bay in Ontario over 50 years later.

The main characters area father and son; a cook and a writer. Also prominent is their friend, a lumberjack, who likes hunting bears and drinking. These three characters as well as the others in this novel are described so well. Social issues of the time such as the Vietnam War and Septmeber 11 are also referenced. I enjoyed this novel, especially the descriptions of life in a logging town and the coild environment- a contrast to a sunny summer’s day in Sydney!

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