Four fabulous sessions at Kennedy School!
March 17, 2022 at 12:04 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Kennedy School, Stories about Chinese history for kids, Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, The Tale of Temujin
Today and yesterday morning I Zoomed in to visit my old friends at Kennedy School in Hong Kong! We had four fabulous sessions with Years 1 to 4! The Year 1s enjoyed my show and tell story reading of The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, and were brilliant with their knowledge of the Chinese Zodiac Animals and the Legend of Lord Buddha’s Race! The Year 2s met my hungry Chester Choi and his friend Jimmy Lee, and the Year 3s and 4s roared like tigers and screamed like VERY spoiled princesses as they listened to me read The Tale of Temujin! We had a blast!! Huge thanks to Library Assistant Susan Mifsud for hosting me, and the PTA for inviting me in! It was lovely to see you all again! Here are some more photos below!
Hear me reading The Tale of Temujin for Asia Society Hong Kong!
March 9, 2022 at 4:36 pm | Posted in Video recordings | Leave a commentTags: Asia Society Hong Kong, Sarah Brennan Youtube, Stories about Chinese history for kids, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Temujin
A big thank you to Pauline Wong and all my friends at the fabulous Asia Society Hong Kong for making this fun Asia Society video available to all my fans! You can hear me reading The Tale of Temujin, with lots of fun details about the history behind the story and much more, while you roar like tigers and scream like spoiled princesses along with me! Have fun!!
That was a BUSY week!
March 6, 2022 at 12:43 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, mainland China schools | Leave a commentTags: A Terrific Tiger Tale writing competition, How to Write a Riveting Story, Stories about Chinese history for kids, Stories about Hong Kong history, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Temujin, Writing Competitions for Kids, Writing workshops for kids
This week I had a fabulous time Zoom-visiting schools in Hong Kong and mainland China in the early hours of the morning from here in France!
On Tuesday, I visited the Year 4 students at Yew Chung International School in Chongqing with my writing workshop How to Write a Riveting Story! The kids used my story planner as I explained the importance of characters, setting and plot sequence, and by the end of the session had some fantastic story plans ready to go for their first draft! I can’t wait to see the results! Thanks to my lovely host, English co-ordinator Becca Roden for inviting me!
On Wednesday I visited the Kindies at Sias International School of Zhengdong New District, Zhengzhou to introduce them to my Chinese Calendar Tales with a fun reading of The Tale of Chester Choi, with my toy dragon Billy Boy looking on, then on Friday I visited the whole of primary school during assembly, where I talked all about How I became an Author and the crucial importance of reading books in the digital age, following which they roared like tigers and screamed like spoiled princesses while I read them this year’s Calendar Tale, The Tale of Temujin! Many thanks to librarian and media specialist Elizabeth Baker and tech wizard Tom Kerrigan for making the visit possible!
Meanwhile on Thursday, I finished my four sessions with my old friends at Stamford American School Hong Kong with a visit to 100 fabulous Year 5s in their homes, where I explained all the fabulous history and real-life mystery behind The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah (A Mystery in Hong Kong)! Thank you Aric Cherry for being such a fun host, and as ever, to Lisa Olinski for all the fantastic organisation!
And today, I slept in…for a long, long time :)!
It was a real pleasure to be working with such enthusiastic and focused students! I look forward to seeing lots of entries from you in my latest Clever Competition, A Terrific Tiger Tale!
WHAM! Yoyo and the World’s Coolest T-shirt and a very cool launch event with REDRESS!
February 28, 2022 at 10:12 pm | Posted in Book launches | Leave a commentTags: Comic books about environment, Comic books about recycling, recycle, REDRESS, Reduce, reuse, Yoyo and the World's Coolest T-Shirt
Here I am wearing my version of The World’s Coolest T-Shirt! Do you think Yoyo would mind me borrowing it? 
Some of the fabulous Zoom audience at the REDRESS launch event on Saturday! Our lovely hosts Corane Chu and Charly Cheung are in the middle row far left and second right respectively 
I’ve RE-USED this favourite jacket of mine a gazillion times since I bought it about 18 years ago – and I’m going to wear it till it falls apart! 
I’ve UP-CYCLED my old Bookworm Beijing T-shirt by making it into a tote bag in which to carry Billy Boy my beloved toy dragon! 
A great way to save the planet is to HAND DOWN your clothes to a younger sibling or friend…or even your DOG! Here’s my dog Bobby wearing an old T-shirt of mine in winter! 
This cute little outfit was worn by my daughters over 20 years ago … and since then it’s been RECYCLED into my favourite soft duster!
WHAM! The REDRESS team and I had the BEST launch of our new comic book Yoyo and the World’s Coolest T-Shirt on Saturday morning! Scroll through the slide-show for some great pics including some of the ways that I personally RE-USE, UP-CYCLE, HAND-DOWN and RE-CYCLE clothes in my family! You can even see me in my very own WHAM! T-shirt which I cunningly made using a paper cut out pinned to one of my old long-sleeved T-shirts! I think my favourite idea has to be the fabulous REDRESS tote-bag which I made using the instructions in the back of our new comic book. It’s SO EASY to make and all you need is an old T-shirt and a sharp pair of scissors!
Make sure your school gets its own FREE copies of Yoyo and the World’s Coolest T-Shirt for the library by writing to Corane Chu at corane@redress.com.hk
Hear me read my new Comic Book this Saturday at 10.30AM!
February 23, 2022 at 9:52 pm | Posted in Comic books, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Environmental Charity, Recycling clothes, REDRESS, Story Readings, Yoyo and the World's Coolest T-Shirt
HOORAY! You can hear me read from my fabulous new comic book with environmental charity Redress, Yoyo and the World’s Coolest T-Shirt AND learn all about how to help save the planet by recycling or re-purposing your old clothes THIS SATURDAY MORNING AT 10.30AM!
And if you miss that event, you can hear our fabulous illustrator read the story on Saturday week!
Make sure you register for the events HERE!
And be sure to wear your coolest T-Shirt!
See you there!
Two fun zoom sessions at Stamford American School Hong Kong!
February 21, 2022 at 11:55 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Stamford American School Hong Kong, The Tale of Temujin, The Year of the Tiger, Turning Historical Research into a Story, Writing workshops for kids
Last week I had two fabulously fun sessions zooming in to visit my friends at Stamford American School Hong Kong! The kids were all at home (thanks to Covid … grrr… ) but they and their teachers were all on deck. The Grade 1s roared like tigers and screamed like spoiled princesses with great enthusiasm during my reading of The Tale of Temujin (sorry, all you Mums and Dads at home with the kids!) while the Grade 3s participated with lots of fantastic suggestions during my new workshop: Turning Historical Research into a Story. We all had a lot of fun! I look forward to seeing some fabulous entries with excellent background research in my latest Clever Competition, all you fabulous Grade 3s!
Huge thanks to Ms Lisa Olinski, Ms Kirsten Struble and Ms Maria Evans for hosting me!
Goodbye reluctant readers! Hello StoryTellAR!
February 19, 2022 at 7:02 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Audio books for children, Enhanced audio books, Reluctant readers, StoryTellAR, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Temujin
Do you know any kids who prefer to play with technological toys than to read great books?
I’m guessing the answer is a resounding YES! And this has troubled me for years, as many of you already know. The benefits of constant book reading for leisure and pleasure are vital to our kids’ development into successful, happy, articulate and literate adults, but in recent decades kids have been deserting books and book reading in favour of technology.
But now there is a way to get these kids to fall in love with books AND to use their beloved technology at the same time!
I’ve partnered with the prize-winning Hong Kong tech wizards at StoryTellAR to produce enhanced audio books which your kids can listen to – and click on – to their hearts content at the same time as reading my books! And the links are FABULOUS! It’s like having me – or indeed a teacher – sitting right beside them giving them all sorts of background and further information about the text.
They’ll learn:
- the meaning of new words
- the real history behind the text or illustrations
- fascinating scientific information relating to the text or illustrations
- where places in the story are located
- what things look like in action
- what things sound like
- fun inside stories about the way the story was made
Using age-appropriate links to websites, YouTube, voice recordings, images and text, all carefully chosen by me, your child will not only learn HUGE amounts but also have a lot of fun along the way! And all because they’re sitting down reading a book – over and over and over again.
They’re going to fall in love with books again, and learn an awful lot at the same time. Hooray!
Take a look at this link to watch StoryTellAR in action as I read this year’s Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Temujin! And then download the StoryTellAR QR code to try it yourself!
Introducing…my first Comic Book – with REDRESS, Hong Kong’s amazing environmental charity!
February 16, 2022 at 9:00 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: books about environment and sustainability, Charity, Environment and Conservation Fund, Environmental Campaign Committee, Kathryn Mann, Recycling, REDRESS, Yoyo and the World's Coolest T-Shirt
I am hugely proud to announce the release of this funny, educational new comic book, which I was invited to write by REDRESS, a fantastic Hong Kong-based environmental charity!
Yoyo and the World’s Coolest T-shirt aims to teach Hong Kong children aged 8 – 10 years about how they can share, repair and repurpose their old clothes to help save the planet. The comic is bilingual in English and Traditional Chinese and is illustrated by acclaimed Australian cartoonist Kathryn Mann.
The project was funded by the HK Government’s Environment and Conservation Fund and Environmental Campaign Committee, so REDRESS is able to donate FREE hardcover copies of this educational comic to primary schools, kindergartens and other student organisations and charitable organisations across Hong Kong!
If you know a school or organisation that might be interested, please ask them to contact REDRESS here.
Huge thanks to the fabulous team at REDRESS – Corane Chu, Charly Cheung, Lauren Boucher and Gwendoline Venn – it’s been a blast working with you! And to Kathryn Mann for her FANTASTIC illustrations! And of course thanks to the ECF and ECC for funding this extremely worthwhile project.
Make sure to register for the upcoming English language launch event – see my next post :)!
It’s time for a writing competition about TIGERS!
February 2, 2022 at 6:40 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese history for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Stories about tigers, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Temujin, Writing Competitions for Kids
It’s a brand new Year of the Tiger, and what better way to celebrate than a story writing competition for primary school aged kids around the world! So if you’re (a) a kid, (b) primary school-aged, (c) living somewhere on Planet Earth and (d) someone who loves writing stories, this competition is the one for you!
This time, your story must include:
- a ferocious tiger
- a Chinese princess
- a wise silkworm
- an inquisitive hawfinch (and if you don’t know what that is, you’ll have to look it up!)
- a magical pepper grinder
- a terrible famine
- the colour aureolin (and if you don’t know what that is, you’ll have to look it up as well!)
Now if the first four characters sound a lot like the characters in The Tale of Temujin, you’d be right! But your story must be completely different to my story, thank you very much!!
You can start right now, and the deadline is Sunday 23rd April. So that gives you a whole ten weeks to get your stories in! Go to my Clever Competitions page right away to find out all the details!
R-O-A-R-R-R! Temujin the Tiger is back!
February 1, 2022 at 5:47 pm | Posted in Chinese New Year, The Year of the Tiger | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese history for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Genghis Khan, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Temujin, The Year of the Tiger
Kung Hei Fat Choy!!
It’s the Year of the Tiger, and my favourite big cat Temujin is marauding again! Just like his namesake, (that boy Temujin who fought his way to becoming Genghis Khan), he’s munching his way through Mongolia right now, before turning towards China, with its magnificent masterpiece the Grand Imperial Palace (or the G.I.P for short!). But wait – who is that grumpy looking Royal Princess in the picture? And will she become just another toothsome morsel…or has Temujin finally met his match? You’ll have to read the story to find out!
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