Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Sai Kung was SUPER!

A big thank you to lovely store owner Ursula Huber for hosting me on Saturday morning! It was great to meet the gorgeous kiddies of Sai Kung and we had a lot of fun with my new Chinese zodiac character Rodney Ram to celebrate the coming Chinese New Year and Year of the Ram! We even had time to throw in a quick reading of my very first book, A Dirty Story!  

Meet Rodney Ram at Dymocks Sai Kung this Saturday morning!

If you’re anywhere near Sai Kung this Saturday morning, now is your chance to meet the fabulous Rodney Ram! I’ll be sharing his funny Tale with kids, mums and dads at Dymocks Sai Kung, No. 7 Man Nin Street, Sai Kung, New Territories, Tel 2791 9110, from 10am to 12 noon. Make sure you let Dymocks know you’re coming at dymockssk@biznetvigator.com!

Hallo to the marvellous mob at GSIS!

A big thank you to Megan Lindsay and the fabulous Grade Threes, Fours and Fives of German Swiss International School who hosted me today! It was great to see you all again and to introduce you to my shy Sheep, a.k.a. Rodney Ram! Remember to keep visiting my blog in the next couple of weeks so you can find out all about my upcoming writing competition about … sheep, rams and goats! You can see me below with Kristina Akova, 2nd place winner in my Ode to My Favourite Tree competition – well done Kristina!

15 Famous and Fabulous Chinese Heroes to read about!

China’s history is bursting with the most extraordinary people! From famous philosophers to amazing inventors to fanatical rulers to wicked pirates, you’re bound to find some of your favourite heroes and villains – and discover even more – in the 15 articles I wrote for the SCMP Young Post in Hong Kong from September to December 2014. Go to my new Famous and Fabulous Chinese Heroes page above and click on the links! Have fun!

My first school visit with Rodney Ram today!

A big hello to all my friends at Japanese International School in Tai Po! It was great to see you again, especially now I’m just living down the road from you all! And thank you for all your excellent work giving names to all the characters in the story. I Forgot the Wolf and Veggie the Tiger would like to say hello again too!

Helloooo again and Happy 2015!

Hello to all my lovely fans out there! I hope you all had a wonderful festive season and I wish you a wonderful New Year in 2015!

It’s been AGES since I last posted on my blog, but I have my reasons! Yes, my family and I, including our dog Bobby, moved house in December, to beautiful Tai Po Kau in the New Territories here in Hong Kong! And we love it! It’s clean, it’s green, and there are lots of trees to hug, and lovely long walks to take, and best of all, so many monkeys and birds to watch in the forest nearby!

My Hong Kong tour with my new book for the coming Chinese New Year starts tomorrow morning…so here above is a sneak peek of my fun new Chinese Zodiac character, Rodney Ram! He’s handsome, artistic and creative, but very shy and he doesn’t want to lead his flock! But then famine strikes his home in Guangdong province and the flock gets nervous. Will Rodney rise to the challenge and save his woolly friends? You’ll have to buy a copy of my book The Tale of Rodney Ram to find out! It’s in the shops in Hong Kong right now!

A fabulous first day of the Commercial Press Story Telling Conference 2014

A big thank you to Christa Tam (top third left) and her terrific team for organizing the Story Telling Conference 2014. It was an outstanding first day on Saturday, with speakers and teachers exchanging ideas about how to motivate kids to read and write through the ancient art of story-telling, and with a fantastic key note speaker, the famous US story-teller Fran Stallings (above to my left) to inspire and entertain everyone! There will be a second opportunity for those teachers who missed it to enroll in workshops next Saturday, so just contact Commercial Press as per the poster below to register right away!

Calling all teachers who care about kids reading … a brilliant PD conference on Saturday 21st October and 1st November!

I know how very much all the teachers and librarians I meet care about encouraging children to read lots and lots of books. Reading books is probably the most important activity a kid can do to secure a happy and successful future, and teachers are constantly telling me how worried they are about the steady decline amongst children in reading for leisure and pleasure.

So if you haven’t yet enrolled in Commercial Press’s fantastic Story Telling Conference (professional development program) this Saturday and next, featuring US Story Teller Fran Stallings and a host of other concerned speakers (including me :)!) you’ll be happy to know that there are still places available! Here is the program: 20140827_Storytelling con_A5 book

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Some Really Riveting Workshops at CKY School!

A big thank you to wonderful primary teacher librarian Tammy Ng, who hosted me today at the exceptional PLK CKY School in Piper’s Hill, Hong Kong. The Grade 3 kids learned all about the vital importance of story planning in my How to Write A Really Riveting Story Workshop, with the help of my famous adventure story about the dog who was kidnapped by aliens, and my scary mystery story about the missing teachers of CKY School! Then in the afternoon the primary teachers and I explored How to Create Bookworms in the Digital Age. It was great to share ideas on this urgent topic, with teachers who really care about kids’ literacy. You can see Miss Tammy above, standing in front of a magic reading castle in just one of the many rooms in the school which are devoted to books. It was fantastic to spend time among such kindred souls!

Featuring our Gr 4 to 6 Clever Competition winner, Jemma Julian!

Introducing Jemma Julian, who won first place in the Ode to My Favourite Tree Competition last week! Jemma is being home-schooled in Sydney, and is already a very creative writer and painter, as you can see from the photos here! Jemma is a huge reader, and loves writing and illustrating stories. She wrote the story Nectar Buzz and the Jacaranda Tree as soon as she found out that she had won my competition because she was so excited, and wants to be an author herself one day. If you click on the pages of her story below you can read it – and just look at the fabulous words she uses! I think she’s going to make it, don’t you?