Fiona Hardy’s How to Make a Movie in 12 Days is a funny, warm story for 9 year olds about an eleven-year-old director with a new camera, a small crew and one summer holiday.<\/p>\n
Hayley has always known she wants to make films. Rosebud is the one she planned with her grandma, a horror film about an evil rosebush with Grandma in the starring role.<\/p>\n
Then Grandma died.<\/p>\n
On New Year’s morning, Hayley’s little sister wakes her by sitting on her chest. There’s a note. It leads to another, and another, each one a line from one of Grandma’s favourite films. At the end of the trail, in the garden shed, is a brand-new video camera.<\/p>\n
Is there a better start to a summer than that? (Hayley cries, and you might too.)<\/p>\n
So she rounds up her crew. Pilar is producer. Samson makes the props and holds the boom mic. Henry is assistant director and very good at calming everyone down.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t go smoothly. Five-year-old Jennifer keeps wandering into shot. Big brother Lucas crunches an apple through a take. Pilar isn’t at all sure she wants to act. The early chapters even open with scene headings like a real film script, which is a fun touch.<\/p>\n
Hayley is bossy and brilliant, and a bit of a nightmare to her friends when the pressure’s on (she knows it, too). You’re right inside her head, which is very funny and sometimes quite sad.<\/p>\n
Grandma is everywhere in the book, in the notes, the camera and the empty lead role. It’s all handled gently and with lots of laughs, but a child who has lost a grandparent may find it tender in both directions.<\/p>\n
It’s Australian, so the holidays land in summer, there’s cricket in the street and everyone eats icy poles. A few words may be new (kinder, op shops), which is half the fun.<\/p>\n
If your reader is always putting on shows or filming their toys, they’ll see a lot of themselves in Hayley.<\/p>\n
For another girl who can’t stop making films, try The Real Z. Z shoots stop-motion videos with her dolls in her bedroom, and her best friend builds the props out of newspaper and sticky notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fiona Hardy’s How to Make a Movie in 12 Days is a funny, warm story for 9 year olds about an eleven-year-old director with a new camera, a small crew and one summer holiday. Hayley has always known she wants to make films. Rosebud is the one she planned with her grandma, a horror film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12494,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":6810,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Real Z","lr_seo_hook":"A trail of notes, a camera from Grandma and a horror film to shoot."},"book_tag":[1051],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[326],"class_list":["post-7700","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-scary-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-fiona-hardy"],"yoast_title":"How to Make a Movie in 12 Days by Fiona Hardy | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A trail of notes, a camera from Grandma and a horror film to shoot. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n