1. Rocco by Sherryl Jordan

2. Sherryl Jordan She learned her craft by attending seminars and listening to other writers; through criticism and rewriting; and through determination and perseverance. Of the 27 picture books and twelve novels she wrote in her apprenticeship years only three picture books were published. Her thirteenth novel, "Rocco", which won the AIM Book of the Year in 1991 proved to be a turning point. Sherryl trained in sign language as part of her work as a teacher's aide working with deaf children and this was one of the inspirations for her novel "The Raging Quiet".

3. In her books Sherryl explores what she calls the boundless spaces between fact and fantasy, the real truth and the truth we imagine. All her books are expressions of her own spiritual journey through life - of her dreams, her battles, her fears and triumphs. She believes that the truth of the imagination is the foundation of good fantasy, and that fantasy is a training groiund for lateral thinkers, inventors and philosophers of the future. Music plays an important part in her life, and she also enjoys sailing, time with friends, time to write and time with her daughter and two grandchildren. Sherryl lives in Tauranga.

4. Pre Reading The Future. Draft Book. Imagine that you could go forward in time - 100 years, when your children are in their 70’s or 80’s What will Tauranga be like? What might have happened? How will life have changed Entitle your piece The Future. Describe what life will be like, the way people live, travel, shop. Will they eat the same things? Will it be space age or more basic? What if an ecological disaster has happened or an atomic war? What will the people look like and wear. Write a few paragraphs.

5. Chapter 1 Where is the boy? List three things that tell you this is set in a different time? What does he see? How do we know the wolf is aggressive? What has the boy experienced? Why does he think the dream was real? How does his dad explain it away? Who is coming to stay? Who has Rocco got to see after school? Why doesn’t he like going? Who does his grandmother think Rocco is? What does his grandmother write and to whom? Why aren’t they sent? What does Rocco’s dad do? What does his grandmother think Rocco has inherited from his father? What can his grandma smell on him that no one else could?

6. Are dreams important? What do you think? What is their purpose? Should we take notice of them?