At last! The results are out in The Rascally Rat Tale Competition!
May 9, 2020 at 12:53 pm | Posted in Arden Anglican School, Beecroft, Australian schools, Challenges and activities, Hong Kong Schools, Shanghai schools, Singapore schools, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Covid competitions for kids, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Rascally Rat Tale Competition, The Year of the Rat
Illustration by Harry Harrison from The Tale of Run Run Rat
Hooray! At last the results in The Rascally Rat Tale Competition have been posted on my Clever Competitions page! Now I know that a lot of you have been doing lots of school work online during the Covid epidemic, so we had fewer entrants than usual, although we still had entries from Hong Kong, Melbourne, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney! They were of a very high standard, so it was difficult choosing the best! I did so using my special spreadsheet, with all the entries anonymised, which you can read more about on the results page.
Congratulations to everyone who put in an entry, and to all the place-winners! Special congratulations to Therese Li of Arden Anglican School in Beecroft, Sydney for placing FIRST in the Year 1 to 3 Category, and to James Bruser Zarin of Shrewsbury International School, Hong Kong, who placed FIRST in the Year 4 to 6 Category. They both win a signed copy of the Chinese Calendar Tale of their choice, as well as a Boxed Set of the Chinese Calendar Tales for their school libraries! Well done! Congratulations also to the English teachers of Arden Anglican School in Beecroft, Sydney whose students write to an exceptionally high standard for their ages!
So go to my Clever Competitions page right away to read the winning stories and enjoy!
Fabulous news for 60 girls for 2019!
December 19, 2019 at 7:38 am | Posted in Australian schools, children's literacy, girls' education, Room to Read | Leave a commentTags: Australian authors, Room To Read Writer Ambassador
Photos courtesy of https://www.roomtoread.org/literacy-girls-education/
Wow! The Australian Writer-Ambassador team (of which I’m a very proud member) for Room to Read has had another successful year and thanks to the support of Aussie students, teachers and parents, it has EXCEEDED its goal once again! This year it has raised AUD$22,066 which is enough to educate 60 girls for a year and support them on their way to a brighter future!
Next year, 2020, is the very special 20th Anniversary year for Room to Read. If you want to help make it the year that changed everything for girls – and boys – around the world who desperately need an education, just click on the link here and see what you can do to contribute!
A funny and fabulous day at Rose Bay Public School!
August 20, 2019 at 4:27 pm | Posted in Australian schools, Poetry Workshops for kids, Rose Bay Public School, Story Readings, Sydney schools, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Jane Tanner, Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, Stories about whales, Storm Whale, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
Today I visited wonderful Rose Bay Public School, where I worked with all the classes from Kindy to Year 6!
The Kindies and Years 1 and 2 heard me read my story Storm Whale, and saw all of Jane Tanner’s beautiful illustrations up on the screen. We shared some fascinating facts about sperm whales, and how we can help them to survive. Then I introduced them to my Chinese Calendar Tales and the characters of the Chinese Zodiac! They were very surprised to learn that Captain Cook was born in the Year of the Rat, and Winnie the Pooh was born in the Year of the Tiger!
Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 heard me read my latest Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig – and had a lot of fun filling in the missing words! Congratulations to the Bandicoot Team in Years 5 and 6 which narrowly defeated the Echidna Team in filling in the blanks! I hope that this afternoon has inspired you all to have a go at writing your own rhyming verse…I have a feeling that you will be rather good at it!
And, of course, I hope that you’re all going to enter my next Clever Competition for kids which will be announced on this blog on the 1st of September!
Huge thanks to lovely librarian Sarah Skelton (above right) and her fabulous assistant Gill Davidson for hosting me today! I wonder if you can guess what year of the Chinese Zodiac we were each born in?
Prize-giving at Arden Anglican School, Beecroft
August 19, 2019 at 4:35 pm | Posted in Arden Anglican School, Beecroft, Australian schools, Awards, Sydney schools | Leave a commentTags: Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales, Dark Horse Activity Book, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, The Tale of Sybil Snake
This morning I also visited Arden Anglican School in Beecroft where I met all the Grade 1s to Grade 3s in chapel, and presented a Boxed Set of the Chinese Calendar Tales to First Prize winner Saskia in the Practically Perfect Pig Tale Story Competition, Grade 1 to 3 Category! Isn’t she a clever girl! I also presented The Tale of Sybil Snake to Second Place winner Alisha (who sadly was home sick today, so her best friend received it on her behalf) and The Dark Horse Activity Book to young Muyao Zhang, who placed fourth! I look forward to receiving lots more entries from Arden Anglican School in my future competitions! You can see me below, with my pig Ping Pong and Saskia (left), and Muyao (right).
A quick visit to Excelsior Public School!
August 19, 2019 at 4:18 pm | Posted in Australian schools, Awards, children's literacy, Clever Competitions, Excelsior Public School, Sydney, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, The Tale of Desmond Dog
This morning I had the huge pleasure of presenting books to some talented writers at Excelsior Public School in Sydney! You can see me above with Caitlyn, who placed Second in the Grade 4 to 6 section of The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Story Competition, as well as Gary and Isabel who also entered the competition! You can read Caitlyn’s wonderful story if you scroll down the page here!
Hellooo Book Week in Sydney!
August 19, 2019 at 7:51 am | Posted in Australian schools, Book Week, Melbourne events, Sydney schools | Leave a comment
Photo Credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/australia-sydney-opera-1281935/
Helloooo beautiful Sydney at the start of Australia’s Book Week! I’m busy visiting schools in Sydney and meeting my friends in Melbourne at the Asia Society – what fun! Keep visiting this page to keep up with all the photos, schools and news!
Hellooo again Brisbane!
March 3, 2019 at 6:54 pm | Posted in Australian schools, Brisbane schools, Hobart, School visits, St Margaret's Anglican School Brisbane, The Hutchins School | Leave a commentTags: The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
Ping Pong Pig and I have just arrived in Brisbane and it’s HOT!! And a nice change from the cold weather of Hong Kong it is, I must say! My jolly little pig and I are really excited to be visiting the fabulous St Margaret’s Anglican School for the next two days! Then on Thursday we fly down to Tasmania for another fun visit to my friends at The Hutchins School and a (slightly belated) Chinese New Year celebration at Fullers Bookshop on Saturday! Keep visiting my blog for all the photos and fun!
Hooray for the Room to Read Writer Ambassadors!
December 19, 2018 at 10:38 am | Posted in Australian schools, children's literacy, girls' education, Room to Read | Leave a commentTags: Room To Read Writer Ambassador, Tristan Bancks
Photo Credit: https://give.roomtoread.org/team/155100
Wow – what happy news from team leader Jodi Mullen today! The Room to Read Writer Ambassador Team (of which I am a very proud member along with Tristan Bancks and 22 other fabulous Australian children’s authors) has achieved its goal and EXCEEDED it!
With the support of many wonderful schools, teachers and parents we have exceeded our target of AU$18,250 and reached AU$21,003! So instead of the target of 50 girls, now 57 girls will be able to attend secondary school in 2019 who previously had no opportunity to travel this important route out of poverty! You can read more here.
YAY TEAM!!!
A fabulous time at the AISHK Fair!
November 14, 2018 at 4:17 pm | Posted in AISHK, Australian schools, Christmas Fairs | Leave a commentTags: Storm Whale, The Chinese Calendar Tales
On Saturday I felt right at home with the Aussie kids, parents and teachers at the fantastic Australian International School Fair at Kowloon Tong! I sold lots of books, met lots of fans, young and old, and all in all had a great time!
Hello Brisbane!!
October 24, 2018 at 6:27 pm | Posted in Australian schools, Awards, Brisbane schools, Poetry Workshops for kids | Leave a commentTags: Churchie, Introduction to Poetry Workshop, Novella Distribution, Queensland Literary Awards 2018, St Margaret's Anglican Girls' School, Storm Whale, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Chester Choi
Photo credit https://blog.queensland.com/2017/10/26/jacarandas-south-east-queensland/
I’ve been in Brisbane this week for a wonderful 5 days to attend the awards ceremony for the Queensland Literary Awards, to visit some of my favourite Brisbane schools, and to visit my family! It’s jacaranda time in Brisbane, when the beautiful blue blooms on the jacaranda trees mean that students should be studying hard for their end-of-year exams!
On Tuesday morning, I visited my old friends at Churchie (Anglican Church Grammar School) in East Brisbane, where the fabulous Grade 3 boys identified haikus, unscrambled limericks and did some rapid rhyming exercises in my Introduction to Poetry Workshop! Many thanks to lovely primary teacher librarian Alison Findlay for expertly hosting me! We had a lot of fun!
On Tuesday evening, my lovely daughter Bea, my brother and sister-in-law accompanied me to the Awards Ceremony for the Queensland Literary Awards 2018! You’ll remember that Storm Whale, my beautiful book with artist Jane Tanner and published last year by Allen & Unwin, was one of the 5 children’s books short-listed for the Griffith University Children’s Book Award. Here it is, displayed at left on the screen above! The Elephant by Peter Carnavas won the award in our section. It was such an exciting event, and I got to meet some of my amazing fellow authors and judges afterwards! Below you’ll see Storm Whale sitting very happily on the sales table with other fabulous short-listed titles!
Today I dropped into two great Brisbane schools to say hello and to introduce them to my Chinese Calendar Tales. Below you’ll see me with some cuties at St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School, sitting astride their famous dragon mascot with a copy of The Tale of Chester Choi! See you all next year girls! Many thanks to their lovely primary principal Angela Drysdale and librarian Donna Jackson for the warm welcome!
Finally, I met the fab team at my new Australian distributors, Novella Distribution in Capalaba! Below, the lovely Rochelle Manners is standing with their wombat mascot, and a very special small wombat which appears to have learned how to climb trees! Thanks girls for a great meeting, and for my new baby wombat, which I’ve christened The Barefoot ‘Bat!
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