Maggie and Methuselah, Oswald Ox and Pin Yin Panda visit Stamford American School HK!
March 22, 2021 at 9:13 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Books about Hong Kong history for kids, How to Publish a Picture Book, Stamford American International School Hong Kong, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah, The Tale of Oswald Ox, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
Wow that was fun! On Thursday and Friday I spent seven fabulous internet sessions with my great friends at Stamford American School Hong Kong with the kids from Grade 1 right up to Grade 5! We celebrated the Year of the Ox with story readings of The Tale of Oswald Ox and the Legend of Lord Buddha’s Race with The Tale of Pin Yin Panda. We had two great sessions with the Grade 3s (who are creating their very own picture books) learning How to Create a Picture Book from Brilliant Idea to Final Product. And we had two fantastic sessions introducing all the students to the fascinating Hong Kong history and even more fascinating TRUE Hong Kong mystery featured in my new chapter book for pre-teens, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah! The kids all went crazy for the World War II history in the story, and especially those real Hong Kong WWII tunnels which lie to this day in and under the hillsides of Hong Kong! Some of them even decided that they were going to solve the mystery! Watch out Hong Kong!!
Huge thanks to Lisa Olinski for inviting me, Lisa Choy for her fabulous technical supervision, and the other lovely teachers who hosted me for the sessions. It was such a treat to work with you all, and I hope you enjoyed our time together as much as I did!
Pin Yin Panda visits Kellett School for Book Day!
February 4, 2021 at 8:34 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
What a perfect Panda! Here is a photo of one of my lovely fans dressed up as Pin Yin Panda for Book Day at Kellett School in Hong Kong today! Isn’t she cute? Thanks so much mum Melanie for sending! And a big hello to all my fans at Kellett School – I hope you had a wonderful day!
Some happy kids meet Ming Kee Monkey!
November 24, 2020 at 11:42 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Kids4Kids HK | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese Zodiac for kids, Books about monkeys, Chinese Calendar Tales, Kids4Kids Hong Kong, Po Leung Kuk Wong Wing Shu Primary School, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey, The Year of the Monkey
Thank you David Wong, Director of Operations at one of my favourite reading charities, Kids4Kids Hong Kong, who has just sent me this photo of a fabulous bunch of kids from Po Leung Kuk Wong Wing Shu Primary School in Hong Kong, each holding a copy of my book The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey! I was delighted to donate the books to this wonderful charity a few months ago, and it’s great to see my mischievous little monkey spreading some happiness and fun to the kids of Hong Kong!
Thank you Class 3R for your fabulous book reports!
November 11, 2020 at 11:23 pm | Posted in Glenealy School, Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Books about Rats
I was so happy to receive 13 wonderful book reports about my book The Tale of Run Run Rat, and equally great pictures from Class 3R at Glenealy ESF School following my Zoom visit there recently! Here are just a few pictures, from Ludovic, Chloe, Samaira, Dylan, Freda, Henie, Burhan and Adhiraaj. Aren’t they fantastic?? Thank you so much, Class 3R, for making my day!
Run Run Rat zooms into Glenealy School in Hong Kong!
November 3, 2020 at 8:51 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Glenealy School, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Run Run Rat
Last Wednesday I had a fantastic time visiting all the kids of Glenealy ESF School in Hong Kong by Zoom! We had two fabulous sessions, from P1 to P6, where I shared my very first story in the Chinese Calendar Tales series, The Tale of Run Run Rat, in a fun story reading, complete with those extremely naughty Chinese crickets Yin and Yang!
And right in the middle of my session with P1 to P3 the village bells here in my village in France rang out the 7am carillon, and I was able to open the shutters so the kids could hear it! It was a truly magical moment! A big thank you to the lovely Gisele Stones, primary librarian, for inviting me!
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!
Almost there…and in the meantime enjoy this poem from a Grade 2 student!
May 5, 2020 at 8:17 am | Posted in Challenges and activities, Hong Kong Schools, Poetry competitions for children, Poetry Workshops for kids, Stamford American School Hong Kong | Leave a commentTags: Introduction to Poetry Workshop, poetry by kids, poetry competitions for kids, Poetry workshops
Well, I’ve almost finished judging The Rascally Rat Tale Competition, and will be posting the results very soon! In the meantime, you can all enjoy this poem from Parker Shapiro, Grade 2, Stamford American School Hong Kong, who took part in my virtual Introduction to Poetry Workshop back in April, and wrote the best poem in the challenge I set his class to complete afterwards. The kids had to complete the poem in perfect rhyme and rhythm in the underlined sections- I think he did a great job, don’t you? And I know we’ll ALL agree with the spell he casts at the end of the poem!
The Magical School Brew
By Parker Shapiro, Grade 2, Stamford American School Hong Kong
Throw into the magic pot
Teachers, admin – all the lot!
Throw your pen into the brew
Throw in all your backpacks too!
Add a dash of markers, red
And teach me to draw instead!
Throw into the magic pot
Teachers, admin – all the lot!
Stir into the steaming soup
Mash it up with some green goop
Don’t forget to add some glue
And the goop gets smelly, ew
Throw into the magic pot
Teachers, admin – all the lot!
While you stir, recite this spell:
Magic,magic, ring a bell
Send the virus to the moon
Let us see our friends at noon
Throw into the magic pot
Teachers, admin – all the lot!
A fun virtual visit to Stamford American International School, HK!
April 9, 2020 at 10:22 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, School visits, Stamford American School Hong Kong, Video, Virtual visits | Leave a commentTags: Bookds about Beijing Olympics, Books about Chinese Zodiac, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Year of the Rat
Yesterday I had a fun virtual visit to the kids of Stamford American International school Hong Kong.We celebrated the Year of the Rat with my story The Tale of Run Run Rat, now celebrating its 12th birthday and 4th edition! After the reading, the kids had lots of questions about the story, and we also talked about what Chinese zodiac animal we were. I’m a Rat, and I had to admit that I’m a typical Rat, always on the go and very ratty when I’m bored! Many thanks to the two Lisas, Lisa Olinski and Lisa Choy, as well as the SAISHK tech team, for making it happen!
Visit to Shatin Junior by Zoom!
March 2, 2020 at 11:06 am | Posted in Chinese New Year, Hong Kong Schools, School visits, Shatin Junior School, Video, Year of the Rat, Zoom visits | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Shatin Junior School, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Year of the Rat, Zoom visits
I just visited the kids and teachers Shatin Junior School by Zoom, to do a fun live story reading of The Tale of Run Run Rat! We had over 120 kids logging in! Thanks so much to teachers Trudy McMillin and James Haworth for organising and hosting this fun online event! Below you can see a couple of fun video clips, and above, some photos. You can even see my little dog Mozart in one of them, enjoying the story!
Deadline extension: The Great Year of the Rat Challenge 2020!
February 25, 2020 at 3:22 pm | Posted in Asia Society Hong Kong, Challenges and activities, Hong Kong Schools, The Great Year of the Rat Challenge 2020 | Leave a commentTags: Hong Kong school closures, Hong Kong Schools, The Great Year of the Rat Challenge 2020
Picture credit: Harry Harrison from The Tale of Rodney Ram
Now I know that there are teachers, kids and parents in Hong Kong who are pulling their hair out right now with today’s announcement from the Government that the school closures have been extended to the 20th April…but there are always silver linings to every cloud.
And one BIG silver lining is that we’re extending the deadline date for the Great Year of the Rat Challenge 2020 till midnight on Saturday 28 March!
That gives you 3 more weeks to finish your challenges! You might even have time to do them ALL now, so you are eligible for the MYSTERY SUPER PRIZE!
So if you haven’t yet registered YOUR name in the Challenge, you’ve got even more reason to do so! Just click on the link HERE and get cracking!
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