Non Pratt, author of contemporary YA fiction, spent the day with our Year 9 classes on Monday 14^th March.  What we like about Non is that we don’t get the usual “what inspired me to write” and “my favourite author is”.  Instead she uses her books as a stepping stone to talk about subjects that interest and are relevant to the students she’s talking to.  We were treated to two different talks: Remixing Relationships (examining romance, friendship and everything in between) and Gender Stereotyping in Pop Culture.  It was fascinating to see the way the different groups of students interacted with Non and joined in the discussions.  She certainly sent them away thinking about, for example, why the platonic relationship is seen as the poor relation to romance in stories and how to apply the Bechdel test to Hollywood’s latest hits.  Non is highly respected on the author circuit, so we were joined at various stages by SF Said (Fortismere’s Patron of Reading), Sara Barnard (YA author) – so three authors for the price of one! - and Sean Edwards, Haringey’s Principal Librarian, Children and Youth. A great day.