Beware!! Just 11 days left in my Perfect Pet Poem Competition for Primary School kids!
October 17, 2018 at 3:14 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Poetry competitions for children, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Ching Shih, Perfect Pet Poem Competition, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Desmond Dog

Ching Shih, the real-life pirate queen in my story The Tale of Desmond Dog, would like to warn you that you have just 11 days left to enter your Perfect Pet Poem in my latest Clever Competition! The deadline is 28 October – and you can enter from anywhere in the world! But beware! If you miss the deadline, Ching Shih might just chop your ears off!! Read all the details of the competition here!
It’s time for a new Clever Competition!
August 19, 2018 at 6:15 pm | Posted in Book Week, Clever Competitions, Poetry competitions for children, Writing competitions for kids | 4 CommentsTags: Clever Competitions, Poetry competition, Primary School writing competition
Hello all my lovely followers out there! I’ve been away on summer holidays with my family, and have just had a fantastic time in Melbourne for Book Week, and now I’m back on deck here in Hong Kong! So it’s high time for another challenge for you budding writers!
This time you must write a poem about a Perfect Pet! It can be your pet, or a pet you’d love to have, or even somebody else’s pet! It can any sort of pet – from an ant to an elephant, so long as it’s a pet you’d love to have!
It can be any sort of poem too! Go to my Clever Competitions page here to find out how to enter and to check out all the rules!
The deadline is Sunday, 28th October, so get out your pen and paper, and start writing now! I can’t wait to read your entry!
The results are out in my Dashing Dog Story Competition!
May 2, 2018 at 3:40 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, writing competitions | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition

At long last I’ve finished the judging of my Dashing Dog Story Competition! I had some important family matters to attend to over the last month, and as we all know, family comes first – even when there’s an exciting competition to be judged! So thank you all so much for your patience! There were a very impressive 66 entries in all, from students in 17 different schools in 7 cities around the world: Beijing, Changzhou, Chicago, Doha, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Shanghai. The overall standard of the stories was very high, making it extremely difficult to pick the order of the winners!
Special congratulations to the first place winners in each category:
FIRST PLACE in GRADE ONE TO THREE CATEGORY: Hannah Thompson, Grade 3 Methodist Ladies College, Kew, Melbourne, 8 years old
FIRST PLACE in GRADE FOUR TO SIX CATEGORY: Aoife Mary Walshe, 4th grade, SUIS HongQiao Campus, Shanghai, 9 years old
And to the ten other place-winners! If you’d like to read their fabulous stories, click here right away!
Enjoy!
The Dashing Dog Story Competition judging begins!
April 9, 2018 at 5:59 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition

A big THANK YOU to all you wonderful writers out there who entered my Dashing Dog Story Competition! I’ve been away in Australia looking after my Mum over the last 2 weeks since the competition deadline, so I’m just starting the judging today!
There are a whopping 68 entries, from 18 different schools in 5 different countries ranging from Doha to the United States to Australia to China! So please be patient and bear with me, and I’ll post the results just as soon as I can!
Ahoy there! Just 31 days left to enter your Dashing Dog Story in my Clever Competition!
February 20, 2018 at 2:38 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Ching Shih, Clever Competitions, Harry Harrison, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Year of the Dog, Writing Competitions for Kids
Ching Shih would like to remind you all that you have only 31 days left until the deadline of the Dashing Dog Story Competition! She would also like to remind you that failure to enter might just result in your being tied in knots and hoisted overboard!!!!
So heave ho me hearties, and send those stories in! It’s very chilly at the bottom of the South China Sea! All the details you need are here!
Just 11 days left in my Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition!
September 19, 2017 at 12:51 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Storm Whale | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, Storm Whale, Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition
Detail from Storm Whale by Sarah Brennan and Jane Tanner, Allen and Unwin, 2017
A big HELLOOO to the wonderful writers who’ve submitted their entries into my Wonderful Whale Haiku competition! We’ve had entries so far from students in 9 different schools in Adelaide, Brisbane, Chicago, Hong Kong, Kolkata, Shanghai and Singapore! But there’s still 11 days to go! If you love whales, and haikus, and haven’t entered my competition yet, make sure you go straight to my Clever Competitions page above for all the details! I can’t wait to read your entry!
The Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition is hotting up!
August 21, 2017 at 10:45 am | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Church of England Grammar School Brisbane, Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition, writing competitions

A big hello to the Grade 4 boys at Churchie in Brisbane for their fabulous Whale Haikus which I’ve just received today! I’ve loved reading them and all of you are now entered in my Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition – well done!
And for all of you who haven’t entered yet, remember you have 40 days left to get your entries in. That might seem like a long way away but remember that time flies, and it’s often the early birds who catch the worms, to mix a few metaphors just for fun! I hope to read your entry soon!
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