Kung Hei Fat Choi! It’s time for a Rascally Rat Tale writing competition!
January 24, 2020 at 2:43 pm | Posted in Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese New Year, Clever Competitions | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Rascally Rat Tale Competition, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Year of the Rat
Picture credit: Harry Harrison, The Tale of Run Run Rat
Kung Hei Fat Choi! It’s Chinese New Year! My feisty Run Run Rat is telling his family all about his adventurous plans for his trip around China. His mum is busy baking some delicious steam buns for a Chinese New Year feast! His dad is taking a break from his hard work as a miner, and his big sister is STILL filing her claws!! As for Run Run’s little brother – he’s wondering how many egg tarts he can gobble up before his mum notices!
So it’s high time we had another writing competition!
It’s open to anyone, anywhere in the world who is:
- a primary or elementary school student from Grade 1 to Grade 6
- or home-educated students of equivalent stage
This time I want you to write me a story about a rascally Rat, set in China, with the following further ingredients:
- a Chinese emperor
- a brainy princess
- three magic tangerines
- an evil talking dumpling
- the colour malachite (if you don’t know what that is, then look it up!)
- a long drought
Click on my Clever Competitions page right away to find out what I’ll be looking for, and all the competition rules!
The deadline date is Friday 17th April, so you have 3 months to write your story! And with a fabulous Chinese New Year holiday just starting, you could begin your story plan right away!
What a fabulous way to start your celebrations for the Year of the Rat! Run Run Rat would surely approve!
And if you don’t have your copy of The Tale of Run Run Rat yet, click here to purchase right away!
A fabulous visit to the Grade 3s at Canadian International School!
January 22, 2020 at 1:52 pm | Posted in Canadian International School Hong Kong, Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year, Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese Zodiac, Books about Lord Buddha's Race, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, The Year of the Rat
A big HELLO to the fabulous Grade 3s at Canadian International School, who I visited on Monday! They’re currently learning about how culture is reflected through story-telling, so a funny story reading of The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, which retells the ancient Chinese legend of Lord Buddha’s Race and how the 12 animals got into the Chinese Zodiac, was just the ticket! After the story reading we had a terrific Q and A session where we discussed the real reason why pandas aren’t in the Chinese Zodiac, as well as why all the other animals are! Many thanks to teacher-librarian Colleen Williams (below) for hosting me!
Thank you Bookazine for a fabulous Hong Kong event!
January 21, 2020 at 2:42 pm | Posted in Book signings, Bookazine Princes Building, Chinese New Year, Hong Kong events, Room to Read | Leave a commentTags: Bookazine Princes Building, Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales, Centricity Hong Kong, Room to Read, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Run Run Rat
A big THANK YOU to Bookazine for hosting a fabulous event last Saturday to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Rat – and our wonderful city of Hong Kong – at the beautiful Centricity in Central! A huge bunch of kids, mums and dads came along to hear three fantastic Hong Kong story readings from three fabulous Hong Kong authors, and take part in some fun Chinese New Year activities! They even got to meet Geronimo Stilton!
![IMG_1007[1]](https://sarahbrennanblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/img_10071.jpg?w=331&h=248)
Of course we had to celebrate the 12th Birthday of The Tale of Run Run Rat, the very first of the Chinese Calendar Tales, which even outsold Harry Potter for 6 weeks in Hong Kong when it was released in 2008! Here I am, above, reading the story to the audience. We had a lot of fun following Run Run from his humble Chinese village all around China to the Olympics Marathon in Beijing!
Then everyone trooped into the activity room to make my rather tricky Rat Mask – I was SO impressed with all the masks the kids made, with a little bit of help from their parents! I think the mums and dads especially had a lot of fun! I’ll be posting details shortly, so you can make the mask too!
After that, Karen Jane Ho and Jessamy Woolley gave two fabulously entertaining story readings – and trips around Hong Kong’s special places – with their beautiful books Emi Takes Hong Kong and Billy the Cavalier and Friends. And then everyone made some gorgeous Chinese New Year decorations…and played Hong Kong Bingo!
Thank you again to Arti and Shonee Mirchandani of Bookazine, their events manager Clemence Robine, and of course Mrs Mirchandani with her steadfast support! Here we are below:
And thank you to all the lovely fans who came up to say hello and get their books signed afterwards!
And last but not least, thank you to my dear friend Jennie Orchard, of my favourite children’s literacy charity Room to Read, who came along to support us all. Here we are below with my beautiful Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales.
We all had a wonderful afternoon!
Happy New Year 2020 – and a fabulous event next Saturday to celebrate Chinese New Year!
January 12, 2020 at 3:06 pm | Posted in Book signings, Bookshop event, Chinese New Year, Chinese Zodiac, Hong Kong events | Leave a commentTags: Bookazine events, Centricity Hong Kong, Geronimo Stilton, Jane Karen Ho, Jessamy Woolley, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Run Run Rat
A very Happy New Year to you all for 2020! I hope that it’s filled with fun and laughter and wonderful events for all my lovely fans…including this very special Year of the Rat event by my favourite Hong Kong bookshop Bookazine on Saturday 18th January from 2-5pm at a very special venue at Centricity, 2nd Floor, Landmark Chater, Central!
We’ll be celebrating my feisty and ambitious Run Run Rat of course :), with a fun story reading followed by a chance to make your own Rat Mask! Then we’ll be celebrating our beautiful city of Hong Kong with story readings by my fabulous fellow Hong Kong authors Jane Karen Ho and Jessamy Woolley, who will respectively host a CNY decoration-making session and a fun game of Hong Kong Wildlife Bingo!
Not to mention special appearances by the most famous rat in the world, Geronimo Stilton! Wow!
So make sure you book your ticket NOW at this link so you don’t miss out! I can’t wait to see you there!
Ping Pong Pig visits the Asia Society!
February 24, 2019 at 11:41 am | Posted in Asia Society, Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year, Events, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Asia Society Hong Kong, Books about Chinese history for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
Ping Pong Pig and I visited the Asia Society yesterday for a lovely afternoon with some scrumptious kids, mums, dads and some fabulous grandmas! We had so much shouting to that plump little pig to “Run Pig Run!” or “Stay Pig Stay!” as the Minister of Most Important Things tried to track her down, and winning mini-pandas during my quiz! And the kids really learned their Ming Dynasty history too, with some impressively accurate answers to some of my tricky questions! Many thanks to the lovely Pauline Wong who hosted me for the event, and to CEO Alice Mong for asking me in!
A Big Fat “Happy Year of the Pig!” from Harry Harrison!
February 11, 2019 at 3:27 pm | Posted in Chinese New Year, Chinese Zodiac | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese history for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Chinese New Year, Far East Economic Review, Harry Harrison, South China Morning Post, The Guardian, The Year of the Pig
My friend Harry Harrison, who is the FABULOUS illustrator of the Chinese Calendar Tales, has asked me to post this very funny cartoon on my blog to wish all his fans a very Happy Year of the Pig! Harry is the famous cartoonist in the South China Morning Post as well as many other publications in the world, such as The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom and the Far East Economic Review. I’m so lucky that he illustrates my stories – and all the fans of the Chinese Calendar Tales are too! What can we say but Thank you Harry!
Kung Hei Fat Choy!! It’s officially the Year of the Pig!
February 5, 2019 at 10:59 am | Posted in Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
Illustration credit : Harry Harrison from The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
She’s singing! She’s dancing! And she’s gobbling…A LOT!!! Just what any happy little pig should do at Chinese New Year, especially when it’s HER year!! Ping Pong Pig and I would like to wish all our fans – be they pig-lovers or pork-lovers – a very happy New Year of the Pig!
May your mornings be full of joy, your afternoons full of mirth, and your nights full of peace! And may your tummies be content, always!
Kung Hei Fat Choy!
Oh what a lovely Launch!!
January 31, 2019 at 9:53 am | Posted in Book launches, Bookazine Exchange Square, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Bookshop event, Boxed Set, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese New Year, Fabulous fans!, Hong Kong events, RoomtoRead, Writer Ambassador | Leave a commentTags: A Dirty Story, Bookazine Exchange Square, Harry Harrison, Room To Read Writer Ambassador, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
Phew is it busy at the moment!!! I’m so busy with lots of lovely school visits and book orders that I’m very late with my blog-posts! So, my lovely followers, you are going to receive quite a number today!
First and foremost, I want to tell you about last Saturday, and the wonderful launch of The Tale of Ping Pong Pig and our beautiful new Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales at Bookazine Exchange Square! We had a fabulous crowd of fans there, old and new, including many old friends who had come to our launches at the very beginning of the series!
First we had speeches from Shonee Mirchandani of Bookazine, who with her sister Arti has hosted ALL my book launches ever since A Dirty Story back in 2004; then from my dear friend Jennie Orchard, who spoke about RoomtoRead, the wonderful children’s literacy charity for whom I am a very proud Writer Ambassador. 20% of the proceeds of sale at the launch is being donated by me and Bookazine to the RoomtoRead library in India that Bookazine is generously funding! You can find out more about RoomtoRead’s fantastic work in India here.
Then I was very pleased to talk about the series and all the wonderful people who have contributed so much to its success. First and foremost, that had to be Harry Harrison, our fabulous illustrator!
Then our designers e5 and printer KK Mok at Zhongtian Colour Printing HK Ltd, who sadly could not be with us.
Then Arti and Shonee of Bookazine of course!
Then my beautiful family – my daughters Bea and Annabel (who surprised me with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers so I cried :))
And my darling husband Philippe who has supported me in every way, through thick and thin, during the 13 years of writing and publishing the series. Here he is on the right with me, Jennie Orchard and Harry!
And last but never least, my fantastic fans, including kids, mums and dads, teachers and librarians, all over Hong Kong!
Next came my story reading of The Tale of Ping Pong Pig – our very last Tale in the series, out just in time for The Year of the Pig! The kids in the audience were such fun to read to, and they and their mums and dads enthusiastically joined in whenever poor little Ping Pong ran into trouble from her nemesis, the Minister of Most Important Things! Then Harry’s annual quiz for everyone from 2 to 102, with prizes of tiny pandas for the right answers…
And then a real treat! Harry showed everyone how he draws his characters…and then the kiddies joined in!
And finally, our traditional book signing, when it’s such a pleasure to meet our lovely fans!
My daughter Annabel got her annual finger signing from Harry and me of course!
It was such a happy, exciting and colourful event, and I’d like to give my warmest thanks again to Clemence Robine, who organised the event for Bookazine and who generously allowed me to borrow some of the photos on Bookazine’s FaceBook page. You can see more here!
Ping Pong Pig rides the radio waves!
January 25, 2019 at 3:32 pm | Posted in Book launches, Chinese New Year, Podcasts, Press, Radio interviews, RTHK3 | Leave a commentTags: Noreen Mir, RTHK3, Storm Whale, The 123 Show, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
Photo copyright http://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show?lang=en
On Wednesday afternoon, I had a fun interview with the lovely Noreen Mir on the 123 Show on RTHK3! We talked all about the book launch this Saturday, the fascinating Chinese history brought to life in my new book The Tale of Ping Pong Pig and my recent adventures with Storm Whale! Click on this podcast link to listen in!
A fabulous Thursday at ICHK in Hong Lok Yuen!
January 18, 2019 at 3:26 pm | Posted in Chinese New Year, Hong Kong Schools, ICHK HLY, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Admiral Zheng He, Beijing, Forbidden City, Hongwu Emperor, Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, Yongle Emperor, Zheng He, Zhu Di
Yesterday I introduced Ping Pong Pig to the gorgeous kids of International College Hong Kong in Hong Lok Yuen! They learned all about the founding of the Ming Dynasty by the extraordinary Hongwu Emperor; his wily fourth son, Zhu Di, who became the third Ming emperor when he stole the throne from his nephew; and the remarkable achievements of his reign including the building of the Forbidden City in Beijing and the treasure ships of Admiral Zheng He, whose seven voyages over the Indian ocean included three to Africa! Here I am above with six keen Grade 6 students, including library leaders, and below with lovely teacher librarian Charlie Beard who hosted me for the day, as well as all my zodiac toys! Thank you ICHK for making me feel so welcome again!
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