The Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School teacher, and published children's author, is helping her young charges find their love of writing and reading.

Rather than throwing children in the deep end and asking them to "write a story" she coaches them through the individual skills and elements needed, making the process fun and exciting, before they are encouraged to write about something that inspires them or is dear to them.

Ms Toering recently published her second children's book Night Watch, and this week published a practical guide to writing for students and teachers in collaboration with fellow author Sue Lawson.

The Inside Story guide introduces young writers to the different approaches to storytelling and help them gain the confidence to put pen to paper.

"Growing up I had two dreams - to be a teacher and to write picture books for children," she said.

"I love bringing stories to life for the children, not only to improve their skills, but hopefully to inspire a lifelong love of writing and reading."

Ms Toering draws her own inspiration from the sky, the landscape, animals and nature.

Night Watch tells the story of a pair of tawny frogmouths as they soar through the skies and through the night keeping watch over the Australian countryside and fauna. Her first book Mallee Sky tackles the effects of drought and climate change in the Mallee.

"Those things are dear to me and something I love. I make sure they (children) are excited and make sure they write something that inspired them and is dear to them.

"If you told an author to go write a book about Antarctica and they don't have a connection ... it will be a really hard task. I make sure it's inspiring students to write something they know and love and give them a hook in that way rather than getting everybody to write about what they did on the weekend."

Ms Toering wants students to see themselves as authors.

"Even with the younger students, we unpack the text and discuss what makes the story work or not work, and I challenge them to write their own," she said.

"I never tell a child what to write. Writers want to write about things they know and love."