Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Just 2 weeks to go till the Dragon and Jade story competition deadline!

There are just 14 days to go to get your entry into my Dragon and Jade Story Competition – so if you haven’t entered yet you’d better get your skates on! Go to my Clever Competitions page (above) for all the details on how to enter!

Thank you Victoria South Horizons Kindergarten!

A big thank you to the wonderful Cheryl Reddin, head of English at Victoria South Horizons Kindergarten, for inviting Pin Yin Panda and I to visit the school today! We had a fabulous time with the gorgeous K3s, with story readings, Q and A and chats about Story Mountains! Then it was off to head office at Causeway Bay for a workshop with the VSA Early Years teachers about the crucial importance of reading books in this Internet Age. I had such a lovely welcome, and really felt that I was among friends! And for all you VSH kids out there reading this post, remember to read and read and read lots and lots of lovely books!

Your Top Writing Tip Number 2 awaits you!

What do these three people have in common? They lived in different centuries, in different places, and they were all different ages at the time they were writing – but the one thing that unites them across time and space is that they all kept a daily diary about their ordinary day to day lives … and that diary is now world famous, many years later!

So many kids say they want to become writers – but they don’t write much at all! It’s hard to think of something to write sometimes, and even experienced authors will tell you that a blank page can be the scariest thing of all! So how does a kid get started writing? And what do they write about? And when? Go to my Top Ten Writing Tips for Kids right away to find out! (And if you want to know who the people in the photographs are, you can find that out too!)

Congratulations to the winners of the HKBPA competition!

A big cheer for all the fabulous Hong Kong primary school kids who entered the Education Bureau’s Hong Kong Budding Poets Award competition! As one of the three final judges in the Primary School section, I was honoured to give a speech at the Awards Ceremony on Saturday 12th May, and what a wonderful privilege it was to hear the four winners recite their winning poems! I was so impressed with the wonderful vocabulary, sparkling imagery and powerful feelings that all the poets expressed! The winners were: Champion: Cheng Yi Ting, Diocesan Girls’ Junior School; First Runner-Up: Ho Yan Mong, John , Ying Wa Primary School; Second Runner-Up: Stephanie Leung, Diocesan Girls’ Junior School; Third Runner-Up and Best Improviser of the Year: Serena Tsui, Diocesan Girls’ Junior School. Well done everyone and keep on writing!

Thank you and farewell to the wonderful Maurice Sendak

Yesterday the great American artist Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of the multi-award-winning children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, died at the grand old age of 83 after suffering a stroke.  I know that every kid and mum and dad who has loved his scary, exciting and beautiful adventure about Max, the boy who sailed off in a boat to where the Wild Things are – and all the plays and films made out of it – will be feeling a little bit sad today. But maybe we should also celebrate his life and his amazing talent, and just feel glad that while he has left us now, his work lives on forever!

Do you want to become a great AUTHOR?

Hello all you budding writers out there! Put your hand up if you’d like to become a great author some day! I get so many questions from so many kids on my blog and during my school visits about HOW TO BECOME AN AUTHOR that I thought I’d create a special page on my blog just for you! If you look at the tabs above and to the right, you’ll see my brand new Top Ten Writing Tips for Kids! Every week for the next ten weeks (excluding July – even authors need a holiday!) I’ll be posting a new Top Tip, so that by the end of August you’ll be able to read them all!

Go to my Top Ten Writing Tips for Kids Page right away for

Top Tip Number One: Great Readers Grow into Great Writers!

Are you a little bit…well…different? Congratulations! That makes you IDIOSYNCRATIC!

Are you a bit quirky and odd? Do you have funny habits that no one else has? Do you write with your tongue sticking out, or do you twirl your hair around your nose when you’re working, or do you run with a bit of a hop, or do you have a laugh like a hyena? THAT’S FANTASTIC!  Because that’s what makes you an original! And original people are the BEST! It also makes you IDIOSYNCRATIC, and all those funny habits of yours are called IDIOSYNCRASIES! Go to my Wicked Word page right away to find out all about this great new word…then USE it!