A fun day at Green Oasis School in Shenzhen!
May 21, 2018 at 8:32 am | Posted in Green Oasis School, School visits, Shenzhen Schools, Story Readings, workshops | Leave a commentTags: How to Become a Great Writer, How to Write a Riveting Story, The Making of a Story Book, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Year of the Dog
On Wednesday last week I took a train ride across the Chinese border to Shenzhen, where the lovely Rachael Taylor (photo above left) hosted me for a fabulous day at Green Oasis School! The Year 1s and 2s met my dashing Desmond Dog in a fun story reading with some fantastic pirate faces and growls from the kids and teachers too! Years 3 and 4 heard all about The Making of a Story Book as I took them on a step by step journey through the writing and publishing of The Tale of Desmond Dog. Then Years 5 and 7 learned all about How to Become a Great Writer – with a bit of a challenge to the Grade 7s to get OFF their digital screens and INTO reading lots and lots of books in their leisure time! And lastly the Year 6s learned all the tricks and tools in my popular workshop How to Write a Riveting Story. And after that I met some gorgeous fans when I signed books for a whole lot of kids, mums and dads! Thanks Rachael – and all the students and staff – for another busy and memorable day at Green Oasis!
Grots Rule at the Bookazine Bookfest last Saturday!
May 14, 2018 at 11:52 am | Posted in Bookshop event, Buying my books, Hong Kong events, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: A Dirty Story, An Even Dirtier Story, Bookazine Children's Bookfest, Grots, Mothers Day
Yes, it’s me, channelling my inner Grot at Bookazine’s Mothers’ Day Bookfest at The Repulse Bay on Hong Kong’s Southside on Saturday! My 17 and 20 year old daughters absolutely banned me from appearing in this costume – what more incentive does a mother want? So my Dirty Dog Desmond and I attended in full regalia for a fun story reading to a huge bunch of little Grots and their long-suffering parents! After the reading we had a quiz with very noisy whistles for prizes (the mums and dads LOVED that!) , then a Most Disgusting Face Competition, and then the kids went outside to try to find the magic ball in a bucket of slime – eerugh!! A big THANK YOU to Arti and Shonee Mirchandani for inviting me, and to their fabulous events organiser Manon for creating such a fabulous event! More photos below! And if you don’t have your copy of A Dirty Story or An Even Dirtier Story yet, you can purchase it here!
Yay…eurgh!!! A Grotty Saturday at the Repulse Bay Children’s Bookfest this weekend!
May 10, 2018 at 3:33 pm | Posted in Bookazine Princes Building, Bookshop event, Hong Kong events, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Bookazine Children's Bookfest, Mothers Day, Repulse Bay
Are you a kid who just LOVES getting dirty? Are you the parent of a kid who just can’t help being a GROT? Are you a MUM whose idea of a great Mothers’ Day weekend is to send Dad out of the house with the kids for the afternoon?
This Saturday join me and the fabulous team at Bookazine at the Children’s Bookfest at The Repulse Bay for a celebration of everything from Mud to Mozzies and a whole lot of Muck in between, as I give a fun story reading of a fabulous Hong Kong favourite, A Dirty Story!
Then join us for some hilarious fun in some VERY GROTTY GAMES!
I can’t wait to see you there!
Hooray! Storm Whale is Runner Up in the UK’s Teach Primary Awards 2018!
May 9, 2018 at 8:20 am | Posted in Book Awards, Teach Primary Book Awards | Leave a commentTags: Jane Tanner, Old Barn Books, Storm Whale, Teach Primary Book Awards 2018
HOORAY! Storm Whale is Runner Up in the KS1 Category of the UK’s prestigious Teach Primary Book Awards 2018! Jane Tanner and I are SO thrilled!
This is such a huge honour and we’re very grateful to the judges for choosing our beautiful book! Find out more about the 2018 awards HERE!
And if you want to purchase your own copy, contact your favourite bookshop or online supplier, or click here.
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!
Desmond Dog at Discovery Bay International School!
April 25, 2018 at 8:42 pm | Posted in Discovery Bay International School, Hong Kong Schools, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Introduction to Poetry Workshop, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Desmond Dog
Desmond Dog and I dashed into Discovery Bay International School on Monday for a fabulous day of story readings of The Tale of Desmond Dog for the whole of primary school and a poetry workshop for some selected students – just before I left for Sydney in the evening! Here I am Aha Me Hearties-ing with lovely librarian Melanie Foti who was my host for the day – she makes a great pirate, don’t you agree?! Below you can see me with the fabulous Year 5s and 6s, and beneath that, with Maddy and Grace, Year 6 Library Amabassadors who also make EXCELLENT pirates!
Bear with me please!
April 19, 2018 at 6:05 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Hello again, all you patient writers who sent in such fantastic entries into my Dashing Dog Writing Competition! I’ve been working as hard as I can to judge your stories…but alas I have to be in Australia next week and won’t be able to complete the judging till I get back! I’m LOVING all the stories I’ve read so far! So please, bear with me – and I’ll let you know the results just as soon as I’m back in Hong Kong!
A fun morning at FSSA in Yau Tong!
April 18, 2018 at 2:14 pm | Posted in Fukien Secondary School Affiliated, Hong Kong Schools, Story Readings, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, Stories about dogs, Stories about pandas, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
Many thanks to Head of English and Deputy Principal Nicolas Delbos (with me above right) and Sunny Ding (above left) for hosting me yesterday at Fukien Secondary School Affiliated Primary School for a morning of fun story readings with all the kids from Primary One to Primary Six! The P1 to P3 kids met my vain but loveable Pin Yin Panda as we explored the Legend of Lord Buddha’s Race and how all the animals got into the Chinese Zodiac in The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, while the P4 to P6s pretended to be fabulously fearsome pirates as I read them this year’s Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Desmond Dog! We had a lot of fun!
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!
Another stunning sonnet from Suzhou…
April 9, 2018 at 3:01 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
During my visit to Suzhou Science and Technology Town Foreign Language School in China last month, I had the pleasure of meeting an exceptional young man, Ivan Huang Yiheng, whose teacher has sent me his latest work.
Meet Ivan, who is 15 years old, below:
and read his beautiful sonnet, based on the theme of Summer – Ivan has sent me some gorgeous summer photos from China which compliment the poem perfectly!
Summer
Summer is just the grandest time of year;
Unending times of fun and merriment,
Masses of lovely flowers, heaven sent.
Moments of wonderment are everywhere,
Early mornings, the lovely sights appear.
Riveting colors in a wild ascent.
Painted on mountain tops without relent.
Loveliness so rich I can only stare.
Ever deeper reds radiate in the sky
And I am fascinated by the show.
Sun is now shining brightly all around.
Unimpressed by the beauty from a high.
Robins keep right on pecking for they know
Easy breakfasts are waiting to be found.
Thank you so much Ivan – and keep on writing – you have great talent!
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