Hang in there, you Clever Competition writers!
April 14, 2021 at 11:21 pm | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition, The Tale of Oswald Ox
Hang in there, all you wonderful writers who entered my Oxcellent Ox Story Competition! I’ve almost finished the judging and I’m excited to report that the standard of entries has been fantastic! It’s been so much fun reading all your very different and original stories about the beloved Ox! But there’s still a bit of work to go, and that’s me, above, grinding away at finishing this very enjoyable task! Please be patient and bear with me. I’ll be posting the results soon!
A Fabulous Event with HKAS!
April 13, 2021 at 3:21 pm | Posted in writing competitions | Leave a commentTags: Chinese International School, Hong Kong Arts Symposium
On Saturday I had the great pleasure of addressing by Zoom the winners of the Writing Section of the annual Hong Kong Arts Symposium competition, hosted by Chinese International School! Along with two other judges (YA writer Chris Maden and journalist Ophelia Wang), we had the immensely difficult task of choosing the winners from a pool of very talented writers from schools across Hong Kong in two age groups: 9 to 12 and 13 to 18. Here are the winners in this section:
All the judges agreed that the standard of entries was exceptional, with the winners displaying considerable maturity as writers, as well as raw talent, empathy and passion. It is my fond hope that they all continue to write prolifically. I confidently expect to see their names mentioned at literary events in the future :)!
Congratulations to all the students who took part in the competition, which also included Visual Arts and Photography. And congratulations also to Reina Lim and the rest of the committee of students who ran the competition and the event with great skill. It was a pleasure to work with you all!
Here are some photos taken at the event, including prize-awarding, workshops and prizes from the sponsors and donors. (Oswald Ox and I were happy to be included :)).
Time’s up in the Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition!
March 29, 2021 at 8:00 pm | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition, The Tale of Oswald Ox
Time’s up my friends in my Oxcellent Ox Tale writing competition, and WOW! how hard so many of you have been working! I haven’t counted them all yet, but there are at least 50 entries from at least 19 schools in Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Australia and the UK! So this competition is going to take quite some time to judge :)! Please bear with me, and I’ll announce the results as soon as possible!
Just 5 days left for your Oxcellent Ox Tale!
March 23, 2021 at 5:32 pm | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition, The Tale of Oswald Ox, Writing Competitions for Kids
Moooo!
Oswald Ox would like to remind you that you have just 5 days left to get your entries in to the Oxcellent Ox Tale story writing competition! The competition is open to primary school students anywhere in the world! Click on my Clever Competition page right away to find out all about it!
Maggie and Methuselah, Oswald Ox and Pin Yin Panda visit Stamford American School HK!
March 22, 2021 at 9:13 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Books about Hong Kong history for kids, How to Publish a Picture Book, Stamford American International School Hong Kong, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah, The Tale of Oswald Ox, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
Wow that was fun! On Thursday and Friday I spent seven fabulous internet sessions with my great friends at Stamford American School Hong Kong with the kids from Grade 1 right up to Grade 5! We celebrated the Year of the Ox with story readings of The Tale of Oswald Ox and the Legend of Lord Buddha’s Race with The Tale of Pin Yin Panda. We had two great sessions with the Grade 3s (who are creating their very own picture books) learning How to Create a Picture Book from Brilliant Idea to Final Product. And we had two fantastic sessions introducing all the students to the fascinating Hong Kong history and even more fascinating TRUE Hong Kong mystery featured in my new chapter book for pre-teens, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah! The kids all went crazy for the World War II history in the story, and especially those real Hong Kong WWII tunnels which lie to this day in and under the hillsides of Hong Kong! Some of them even decided that they were going to solve the mystery! Watch out Hong Kong!!
Huge thanks to Lisa Olinski for inviting me, Lisa Choy for her fabulous technical supervision, and the other lovely teachers who hosted me for the sessions. It was such a treat to work with you all, and I hope you enjoyed our time together as much as I did!
Squawk! Just 16 days left in my Oxcellent Ox Tale writing competition!
March 12, 2021 at 11:20 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese Zodiac, The Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition, The Tale of Oswald Ox, Writing Competitions for Kids
The rooster from my The Tale of Oswald Ox is raising a loud alarm! You’ve got just 16 days left to get in your entry in my Oxcellent Ox Tale writing competition for primary school aged kids! So if you haven’t started writing your story, you’d better get started this weekend! You can find all the details about the competition here!
Oswald Ox and Maggie and Methuselah visit Renaissance College!
March 10, 2021 at 6:29 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah, The Tale of Oswald Ox, The Year of the Ox
Wow that was fun! I had the most fantastic all day Zoom Visit with the Grade 4s to Grade 6s of Renaissance College HK on Monday! After welcoming the new Chinese Year of the Ox with a short story reading from The Tale of Oswald Ox, I showed the students a fascinating PowerPoint presentation about the fabulous TRUE history and mystery at the heart of my new chapter book for pre-teens, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah (A Hong Kong Mystery). The kids went crazy with all their questions and comments about the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in World War II, the hundreds of tunnels still existing under Hong Kong island and the New Territories, and the amazing true mystery of The Missing Chater Collection! A big THANK YOU to lovely teacher librarian Shirley Chan (pictured beside me below) for hosting me, and to the fabulous staff for helping to supervise the sessions!
A big MOOO from Oswald Ox for Kowloon Junior School!
March 8, 2021 at 9:51 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Oswald Ox
A big THANK YOU to teacher librarian Macy Lau, for hosting me and dear old Oswald Ox last Wednesday at Kowloon Junior School! We visited the fabulous Year 1 to Year 3s by Zoom, with a fun story reading of The Tale of Oswald Ox and some great Q&A afterwards from the kids – and I learned how to DAB!!! Here are the teachers above, teaching me how! Thank you kids for being such a GREAT audience!
Introducing…my very first chapter book for pre-teens!
March 3, 2021 at 8:28 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Blacksmith Books, Chapter books about Hong Kong, Chapter books for pre-teens, Charly Cheung, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah
It’s almost here – The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah, my very first chapter book for pre-teens to begin a brand new series! It’s all about the adventures of Maggie, a ten year old girl, her best friend Edmund Ma, and her very mischievous African Grey parrot Methuselah (who breaks into funny rhymes at the most inconvenient moments :))! Together, they solve real life mysteries in cities around the world – and for this, my very first chapter book, the real mystery they solve is set in my beloved Hong Kong! I’ll tell you all about it in posts to come! At the moment it’s still being illustrated by the amazing Charly Cheung, a Hong Kong based, international award winning artist. You can see more of her work here. And it’s being published by the wonderful Pete Spurrier at Blacksmith Books, one of Hong Kong’s leading publishers, later this month. I’m SO excited!
The fabulous students of Year 5 at Harrow International School HK were the very first students in the world to hear about it, and to hear me read Chapter 1 from the book! Thank you for being such a fantastic audience, and for asking such brilliant questions afterwards! I hear from Mrs Campbell that she has challenged you to write your very own Chapter 2 – I can’t wait to hear what you’ve written!
And if any of my followers want to pre-order a copy of my new book, just click on this link!
A very special day at Harrow International School Hong Kong!
March 3, 2021 at 7:58 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Chinese New Year, Harrow International School HK, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Oswald Ox, The Year of the Ox
A big Hellooooo to all you fabulous students and staff at Harrow International School Hong Kong! Thank you so much for having me yesterday for my first Hong Kong school visit to celebrate this brand new Year of the Ox! It was wonderful to spend time with you reading The Tale of Oswald Ox to the Year 1s to Year 4s, and The Tale of Chester Choi to the gorgeous K1 and K2 kiddies! And then to visit with the Grade 5s…but that was so special it deserves another post all to itself!! A huge thank you to wonderful Director of Libraries Liz Campbell for inviting me and for being my fantastic host for the day! Kung Hei Fat Choi!
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