Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
September 16, 2016 at 10:16 am | Posted in Books about Chinese Zodiac, Children's Chinese Zodiac Books, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese festivals, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon cakes, Moon Festival, The Legend of Chang'e, The Legend of the Rabbit in the Moon, The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit
A very happy Mid-Autumn Festival to you! I hope that you’re all enjoying the holidays today in Hong Kong. The most famous features of the Festival are moon cakes and lanterns…and here is a beautiful lantern photographed by my beautiful daughter Beatrice – thank you Bea! The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called – you guessed it – the Moon Festival, and sometimes the Mooncake Festival or the Lantern Festival! There are some lovely Chinese folk stories associated with the Moon Festival, including the Legend of the Moon Goddess, Chang’e, and the Legend of the Rabbit in the Moon. If you want to read more, you can click here: http://www.moonfestival.org/the-legend-of-chang-e.html, or, better yet, read my Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit! You can even buy it here: http://www.auspicioustimes.com/product/the-tale-of-rhonda-rabbit/!
A fabulous evening with Room to Read at Bookazine!
September 9, 2016 at 8:45 am | Posted in Bookshop event, children's literacy, Room to Read | Leave a commentTags: Bookazine Princes Building, BuyABookGiveABook
I had a wonderful time at the Hong Kong launch of Room To Read’s BuyABookGiveABook campaign last night at Bookazine in Princes Building! For the rest of September, when you buy any of 50 fabulous titles at one of Bookazines stores at Princes Building, Exchange Square, Lyndhurst Terrace, Repulse Bay or the Shui On Centre, a local language book for a child in an underdeveloped country will be funded by Bookazine! These books include titles by Hong Kong’s Room To Read Writer Ambassadors Bhakti Mhatur, Nury Vittachi and myself🙂 , Kids Fest books, and books by Room To Read founder John Woods (see top right!). All books included in the campaign have a fun sticker attached to help you find them.
John Woods gave an inspiring talk about the fabulous work Room To Read are doing, reaching literacy targets ahead of time in their quest to end illiteracy for all children, everywhere. Read more about Room To Read’s amazing work building libraries and schools, and publishing local language books, for kids in underdeveloped countries (and find out how you can get involved) here: http://www.roomtoread.org/
If you’d like to support the BuyABookGiveABook campaign, just pop along to one of the above Bookazine stores this September! You can update your collection of Sarah Brennan books at the same time🙂 !
The Results are out in my Sunny Summer Poem Competition!
September 7, 2016 at 2:52 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competition, Sunny Summer Poem Competition
Phew! I’ve just finished the judging of my Sunny Summer Poetry Competition! It was tremendous fun, but exhausting… I think I need a good long drink of lemonade with ice!
There were a total of 79 fabulous entries this time, from 21 schools in 8 cities around the world: Calcutta, Chicago, Hong Kong, Perth, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney! A big thank you to everyone who entered for your very hard work and wonderful creations!
Congratulations to the Top Ten entrants in each Category, whose winning poems have just been posted on my Clever Competitions page above!
Special congratulations to Madeline Painter of Dryden School in Chicago who won the Years One to Three Category, and to Aria Fafat of UWCSEA Dover in Singapore, winner of the Years Four to Six Category. Their poems are outstanding.
So if you want to soak up the last of the summer sun while reading some fabulous poetry, go to the Clever Competitions page right away to enjoy all the winning entries!
A fun event at Hong Kong Maritime Museum!
September 4, 2016 at 9:30 pm | Posted in Bookshop event, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese Zodiac, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Rodney Ram
This afternoon I had the huge pleasure of meeting some kids, mums and dads and students from Yew Chung College at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum! There were two story readings (The Tale of Chester Choi and The Tale of Rodney Ram), with book signings after and a chance to meet the audience! Many thanks to Annette Lo and Kitty But from the Museum for hosting a great afternoon!
Wow! Meet a Hong Kong teenage author with more than 6 million readers!!
September 1, 2016 at 5:55 pm | Posted in Being an Author | Leave a commentTags: children's literacy, Expat Parent magazine
I was just browsing a fabulous Hong Kong parenting magazine called Expat Parent today, when I came across this article, about 14 year old who has clocked up more than 6 million readers with her online book Falling Too Far! She talks about how she became a writer, and how she organizes her week to fit her writing in with school work and all the usual life of a teenager in Hong Kong. Now there’s inspiration for other young writers! Here’s the link: http://expat-parent.com/2016/08/11/bookworm/ . Have a read and see what you think!
Time’s Up!
September 1, 2016 at 5:51 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competition, Sunny Summer Poem Competition
Thank you to all you fabulous poets from 21 schools in 8 different countries who sent entries in to my Sunny Summer Poem Competition! The judging starts today, and reading the quality of the entries, it’s going to be really tough to decide the ten finalists in each category. So please be patient with me and I’ll let you know the results as soon as I can!
If your family loves books…here’s an event for your mums and dads on International Literacy Day!
August 25, 2016 at 10:32 am | Posted in Being an Author, Bookshop event, children's literacy, Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: children's literacy, Room to Read
What a great way to celebrate reading books and to help kids in need in Asia and Africa to read too! I look forward to seeing you there!
Remember to register here: https://www.anpasia.com/public/event/RegistrationForm/45465E477946455D43
Just 10 more days to enter my Sunny Summer Poetry Competition!
August 21, 2016 at 10:54 am | Posted in Children's Chinese Zodiac Books, writing competitions for high school kids, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: children's literacy, Faraway Short Story Competition, Sunny Summer Poetry Competition
The summer holidays have almost ended for most of us – and some of us have returned to school already! So there are just 10 more days to get your entry into my Sunny Summer Poetry Competition for primary school kids! If you haven’t submitted your entry yet, you’d better get your roller-blades on! See all the details on my Clever Competition page (tab located above). I can’t wait to read your entry!
And if you’d like to enter another competition, and you’re an Australian living anywhere in the world, and you’re between the ages of 7 and 18, there are just 7 days left in the Faraway Short Story Competition – see http://www.creativewriteit.com.au/faraway2016.html for details!
They did it! My 16 Summer Writing Class students 15-19 August finished in style!
August 20, 2016 at 1:19 pm | Posted in Summer writing class, workshops, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: children's literacy, Writing workshops
Congratulations to the imaginative, focused and very hard-working students in my Summer Writing Classes from 15 to 19 August. Above is my fabulous morning class (also known as the Quiet Class :)) and below is my feisty afternoon class (also known as the Noisy Class 🙂 – and we all know who were the noisy ones!). But I’m happy to say that both classes knuckled down to produce fantastic stories full of great characters and detailed settings, as well as a lot of exciting action! You should all be very proud of your achievements. I look forward to receiving lots of entries from you in my Clever Writing Competitions in the coming years!
Just one more day for two more clever Summer Writing Classes!
August 18, 2016 at 6:48 pm | Posted in Summer writing class, workshops | Leave a commentTags: children's literacy, Writing workshops
What a week it’s been! I’ve had a fantastic time working with 16 very dedicated writers in the second week of my Summer Writing Classes in Wanchai; 8 kids in the morning (at left, above) and 8 more in the afternoon (at right, above)! It’s been a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun too! Tomorrow is the best day of all, when everyone gets to hear the stories that their new friends have written – I can’t wait!
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