Thank you Fullers Bookshop!
March 16, 2019 at 9:58 am | Posted in Bookshop event, Events, Fuller's Bookshop, Hobart, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Books about the Chinese Zodiac, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, Yongle Emperor
Many thanks to Tim Jarvis and Anne Fagan of Fullers Bookshop for hosting a story reading at their fabulous Collins Street store in Hobart on Saturday morning, 9th March! We had a small but quality audience of kids who expertly danced the Dance of the Seven Veils alongside Ping Pong Pig as she charmed the mighty Yongle Emperor in The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, and they left with some fun colouring-in sheets of characters from the book drawn by Harry Harrison! I look forward to seeing you all again soon!
Ping Pong Pig bounces into Hutchins School in Hobart!
March 16, 2019 at 9:41 am | Posted in Hobart, Hobart Schools, Tasmania, The Hutchins School | Leave a commentTags: Beijing, Stories about Chinese history for kids, Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Forbidden City, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
Wow! Look at that sky! It was what my Dad used to call a “blue and gold day” on Friday 8th March when Ping Pong Pig and I visited Hutchins Junior School at Sandy Bay in Hobart, Tasmania to visit our many friends there with my latest Chinese Calendar Tale in one packed session! Just about every kid and teacher in school was there, from the Pre-Kindies to the Grade 6s, and they all fell in love with my feisty little pig as she evaded the Minister of Most Important Things in her romp around the Forbidden City in Beijing! Huge thanks to my dear friend, Head of Library Kate Reid, for inviting me in! And I’m looking forward to some great Hutchins entries in my Clever Competition!
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!
Meet Harry, a HUGE book reader!
June 3, 2018 at 4:02 pm | Posted in Australian schools, children's literacy, Hobart, The Hutchins School | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Zodiac, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Tale of Temujin, The Year of the Rat, The Year of the Tiger
Meet Harry from The Hutchins School, who I met in the Junior Library during my Tassie visit a fortnight ago! Harry has such a huge smile on his face because he LOVES READING BOOKS! And he told me that his bedroom at home is so full of books, there’s hardly any room for his bed! Now THAT’S what I call a great reader! I bet Harry is a fantastic writer and thinker too, because that’s what you become when you read lots of books for leisure and fun! Well done Harry!
ps Harry was born in the Year of the Tiger and I was born in the Year of the Rat – hence the books we are holding!
Saturday: Keynote Speech at the ASLA Mini-Conference, Hobart 2018
May 30, 2018 at 10:31 am | Posted in ASLA, Australian schools, children's literacy, Conferences, Hobart | Leave a commentTags: children's literacy, Christina Booth, Importance of Reading Books in the Digital Age, Scientific studies on reading books
On Saturday I was very honoured to give the Keynote Speech at the ASLA Mini-Conference in Hobart. The theme for the day was School Libraries – Be Passionate! Now anyone who knows me knows that the thing I’m most passionate about in my LIFE (after my family of course!) is CHILDREN’S LITERACY. So this was a theme right after my own heart, and I addressed over 60 Tasmanian librarians with a Powerpoint presentation that gave them the latest science on the importance of reading books for the brain – and for the world! And I proved using scientific studies that book-reading – and I mean reading LOTS AND LOTS OF BOOKS – for leisure and for pleasure – can quite literally save this troubled world! And the only way to ensure this – as well as high academic performance in schools – is to have a well-funded library full of real books, run by a teacher librarian with support staff, in every single school! I’ll be writing more about this on my other blog soon, so I’ll keep you posted!
I was also delighted to meet wonderful Tassie author Christina Booth, author and illustrator of many beautiful Australian children’s books, who treated us all to a fantastic talk about her method in creating picture books! It was fascinating to get insight into such an amazing creative mind!
Huge thanks to the lovely Ailsa Hill and Kate Reid for inviting me, and to the ASLA Committee who hosted the day! More photos to come!
Friday: Hutchins School Visit!
May 30, 2018 at 9:33 am | Posted in Australian schools, Hobart, The Hutchins School, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Books about whales, Chinese history, National Simultaneous Story Time, Storm Whale, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Desmond Dog
My Hobart visit kicked off with a fabulous morning with the boys at The Hutchins Junior School! It just happened to be National Simultaneous Story Time that very morning, so we started off with a fabulous story from the Headmaster, Dr Rob McEwen! He was a spectacular story-reader! Then the Grade 1 to 3 boys listened to me reading Storm Whale and simply didn’t stop asking questions and making some great observations about whales afterwards! Before my second session, the Grade 4 to 6 boys and I listened to the Deputy Principal Alan Jones (wearing a very interesting hat!) reading yet another story to the kids, after which I introduced them to the evil pirate queen Ching Shih and some fabulous Chinese history with The Tale of Desmond Dog! Many thanks to my dear friend, and head librarian, Kate Read, for inviting me again! More photos to come!
Interview with ABC Hobart last Friday!
May 30, 2017 at 7:06 pm | Posted in Hobart, Radio interviews | Leave a commentTags: ABC Hobart, Louise Saunders, Storm Whale
I was lucky enough to meet the famous Louise Saunders, of ABC Radio Drive, last Friday afternoon in Hobart, and we had a lovely long chat about Storm Whale, the inspiration behind it, and the writing process. You can listen to the interview on this link!
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/hobart/programs/drive/storm-whale/8568362
Thanks Fullers for a funny and fabulous event!
May 27, 2017 at 4:01 pm | Posted in Being an Author, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Bookshop event, Chinese festivals, Hobart | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Fuller's Bookshop, The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster
A big thank you to all the friendly efficient staff at Fullers Bookshop in Hobart for hosting a wonderful event this afternoon for me and Rickshaw Rooster! We had a lovely crowd of babies, kids, pre-teens, mums, dads and grandparents, who cockadoodle-dooed beautifully during my story reading, learned lots of Chinese history, and did brilliantly in the post-reading Quiz (for which they won some tasty fortune cookies!) Special thanks to my host for the day, Anne – photographed with me above; to Cat, the fabulous shop manager, and to Peter Igram-Jones who so patiently and efficiently handled all the lovely book sales in the three schools I visited this week (even though we sold out of four of my titles!). I’ll see you again soon!
Rickshaw Rooster meets Hobart kids at Fullers Bookshop on Saturday!
May 26, 2017 at 6:49 pm | Posted in Books about Chinese Zodiac, Bookshop event, Children's Chinese Zodiac Books, Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year, Hobart | Leave a commentTags: Fuller's Bookshop, The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster, The Year of the Rooster
Rickshaw Rooster is saying a big HELLOOOO to Hobart tomorrow at Fullers Bookshop at 3pm in a fun belated Chinese New Year event to celebrate the Year of the Rooster! We’ll have laisee packets with tasty money, a fun story reading, a book-signing, a quiz with fun prizes for kids, mums and dads, and even some free Year of the Rooster bookmarks! So if you’re in Hobart this Saturday afternoon, come along and join the fun!
Cock-a-doodle-DOOOOO!
A marvellous morning at St Mary’s College
May 26, 2017 at 6:35 pm | Posted in Australian schools, children's literacy, Hobart, St Mary's College, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese culture, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
What a fun morning I had today at St Mary’s College here in Hobart, introducing my Chinese Calendar Tales! My lonely dragon Chester Choi and I met all the lovely girls and boys of Prep to Year 1, and vain but loveable Pin Yin Panda and I met all the kids in Years 2 and 3! It was a joy to work with such a lovely lot of kids and their dedicated teachers. Warm thanks to lovely Deputy Director of Junior School, Glynis Devereux, who was my host for the day, and to librarian Marylouise Jones, who invited me! I hope to see you all again soon!
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