Paula Xibberas
The name Tristan has a number of meanings; one is’ noise’ or ‘clatter’ and Tristan has been true to that interpretation of his name in making some noise about how fantastic Tassie’s MONA is! Tristan was here in Tasmanian recently for the first time to visit schools and encourage children to read. Tristan has long been involved in writing educational literature and working to encourage, especially boys who are not always that keen, to love books.
There is another meaning to the name Tristan and that suitably refers to the Tristan of legend and means ‘sad’ and maybe there was a certain sadness in Tristan about the lack of interest of boys in reading but now things have changed and boys are becoming interested in reading and that has a lot to do with some inspiring writers and people like Tristan.
Tristan’s occupation was once that of a working actor, perhaps you might remember him from ‘Home and Away’ or a number of other Australian TV dramas. Tristan went on to capitalise on the English love of Australian TV and music stars and did some presenting on television in the UK. Tristan found the presenting role preferable to acting because it allowed him to use his personality in his work rather than acting out another writer’s script for a character. Tristan possesses just that right kind of playful personality that gives him that insight into children and makes him such a good children’s writer.
His target as mentioned before has been to encourage reluctant readers especially boys. He himself was inspired by the stories of Paul Jennings and was often left wanting more. Tristan began writing adventure stories to capture particularly boy’s interest and also remembering to use the visual element as an important incentive for boys.
Tristan has also been involved in coming up with some interesting initiatives that help encourage reading and at the same time do something positive for the community.
Recently he has been involved in raising money for a library in Cambodia with already 11,000 raised and 9,000 to go. The way he did this was having swap libraries and book challenges where students were encouraged to seek parents sponsorship for 20 dollars or so for keeping quiet for the day (and hopefully indulging in some reading!) or school busking where instead of a song children read from their favourite books and those spectators that enjoy will give a coin donation.
Some of Tristan’s inspirations have been based on the popular book ‘Change the world for ten bucks’ which shows how little things can make great change come about.
His upcoming book is a suspenseful mystery that features parents kidnapping their children! Other books Tristan has written are his latest ‘Galactic adventures’ and ‘Myself, life and other stuff’
You can check out Tristan’s site at www.tristanbancks.com
