Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

A Ssspecial Recording on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMuFyWe8gIU

For all my lovely fans who didn’t make it to my Hong Kong book launch on Saturday 2nd February, here’s a link to Bookazine’s youtube recording of my story telling! Huge thanks to Odessa So of FEML and Bookazine for making it!

And here are some great pics of the event too!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.532831340082720.125459.115531475146044&type=3

SSSybil Sssnake sssays…my new Clever Competition starts TODAY!

For all you budding authors and poets out there, my new Clever Competition has just been posted on my Clever Competitions Page! Click the tab at the top of this page right away for all the details and rules, as well as instructions as to how to send in your entry! Suffice to say, the subject is, of coursssse, a Poem about a Snake! Your time starts NOW and the deadline is Midnight GMT on Friday 7th June 2013. 

So get sssscribbling!

A fabulous day at Christian Alliance International School!

Thank you to all the dedicated staff and happy kids of Prep to Grade 3, CAIS, Kwai Chung campus! I loved my day with you all – you were so enthusiastic and welcoming, and listening to the staff singing and playing the piano so beautifully in the staff room at lunchtime was an unexpected delight! Here’s a photo of me above with the Grade 3s for our Poetry Workshop, and below with lovely librarian Jeannie Li and Justin Enns, my “slave” for the day who turned the pages as I told my Tale of Sybil Snake! Justin is a wonderful artist who drew lion cub Sparkle, mascot of the CAIS Read-a-Thon, on the poster in the picture! You CAIS kids are so lucky to have such gifted and creative teachers!

Hey it’s good to be back home again…in Hong Kong!

Those of you whose mums and dads used to hum along to the wonderful songs of  US singer/songwriter John Denver will know just what tune I’m singing when I say these words! I love my home country of Australia very much…but I also love Hong Kong, which has been my adopted home for the last 14 years! And it’s great to be back with my family and friends, not to mention my funny dog Bobby, and all the craziness of this busy, wonderful city! So hello again Hong Kong – it’s good to be home!

Hello Collingwood College – thanks for a ssssuper day!

Last but not least in my inaugural Melbourne Schools Tour was the remarkable Collingwood College – half Steiner school, half State school, which I visited last Friday. I was so impressed with the fantastic staff and creative kids, not to mention their wonderful artwork! Here I am above left with the staff in the Chinese department (from left: Jing Cheng, me, Lijuan Wang, Jenny Chen and Daisy Rao), who put on a special Chinese Day in the school for my visit! And below are some fabulous kids and remarkable artwork!

Doncaster Gardens Primary School was Fabuloussssss!

What a fantastic day I had today at Doncaster Gardens Primary School! It felt almost as if I was home in Hong Kong, with a vibrant multicultural community of teachers and kids who were all so knowledgeable about, and interested in, all things Chinese! It was a day full of fun and fascinating facts! We had story readings for the Preps to Grade 4s with Chester Choi and Sybil Snake, my How to Write a Riveting Story Workshop with the Grade 5s and my Publishing a Book Workshop for the Grade 6s. Then my wonderful host, EAL head Kathy Given (pictured below with the children), took me on a tour of the school’s Chinese art creations, made by the children under the guidance of their wonderful art teacher Grace Cheung, including a beautiful blue Chinese Dragon (name of the DGPS Dragon), an Endangered Animals Garden which was enabled by a grant from the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools program, and an extraordinary felt tapestry entitled “East meets West” which was inspired by a magic carpet and depicts the different types of animals that  can be found in different countries, including China and Australia of course! Aren’t they fantastic?! See my photos below!

A Case of Clever Calligraphy!

Ni Hao to Adam, a clever young man from Scotch College, where I visited on Monday (see below). Adam is learning the ancient and beautiful art of Chinese calligraphy from private teacher Jason Huang, and very kindly asked Jason to create a very special gift for me: 12 gorgeous red-and-gold-flecked paper diamonds bearing the names of the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac! Here I am with Adam, my bad Billy Boy dragon (cousin to Chester Choi who as we all know eats children) and the sign for Dragon or lung. Thank you Adam and Jason! And if you’d like to see all 12 signs, keep an eye on my Which Zodiac Animal Are You? page above – I’ll be uploading them shortly!

Kung Hei Fat Choi to Coburg West Primary School!

It was a very happy Chinese New Year at Coburg West Primary today where I visited Grades 3 to 6! We read my Chinese Calendar Tales and learnt how to write great stories, and all in all, had a lot of fun! Here I am with the terrific Daniel Copping, who kindly invited me to the school, and, from left, Ebony, Isabella and Ari. Big thanks to Marcus Stoic, just 7 years old, who took this brilliant photo!

Hello all you SSSuper SSStudents of Scotch College!

Today I had a fantastic day at the wonderful Junior School at Scotch College in Melbourne! We had five busy story sessions, and I read a host of stories to the boys, from The Tale of Sybil Snake to The Tale of in Yin Panda to The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit to The Tale of Temujin! It was funny and fabulous and full-on, and I had a ball! Thank you to the lovely Jocelyn Pride, Head of Junior School Library, who hosted me, pictured above with me and Zingora, Scotch’s very own Chinese super-dragon, made by the boys in 2009 to honour the Beijing Olympics. You can find out more about him at http://www.scotch.vic.edu.au/gscot/09maygs/22.htm.