SMH Jan 20, 2026 by Christopher Harris
Isabelle Henderson’s year 12 English advanced teacher had a voracious appetite for books.
“She read six books a week. She was unreal,” said Isabelle.
Her teacher pushed Isabelle and her friends to read books too. When the class read Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, that same teacher warned students against watching the Netflix adaptation as a replacement for consuming the 540-page book.
“She was a phenomenal teacher … she was always pushing us out of our comfort zone.”
Now Isabelle can see why: like most students in her class, she graduated from north-west Sydney’s Northholm Grammar School last year with top marks in English advanced – an achievement she traces back to reading.
“It just makes such a big difference in the way you write,” she said.
