Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Just 4 days left to the Clever Competition deadline!

There are just 4 days left till the deadline for my Terrific Tiger Tale writing competition! So if you haven’t sent your entry in yet, you need to get rampaging, like my Temujin! You can find all the details on my Clever Competition page here! I can’t wait to read your story!

Two fabulous Story Planning weeks!

March 29, 2022 at 4:05 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Tags: Camp Asia, How to Write a Riveting Story, Sarah Brennan's Story Planning Sessions, Story writing courses for kids

Me and Miss Sam from Camp Asia Story Planning Week 1 on Friday, our Costume Day!

I’ve been having a blast this week and last, working with the fabulous kids enrolled in my Story Planning Sessions with Camp Asia! We’ve been working on all the essential ingredients for a fantastic story, including Story Idea, Characters, Settings, Plot, and of course brilliant beginnings and memorable endings!

To the kids in Week One, aged 8 to 10 – you were fantastic! You worked so hard to produce some great Story Plans, and I can’t wait to see the stories you write based on your plans!

To the students in Week Two, aged 11 to 12 – I’m having such fun working with you! Keep up the good work so far!

You can see more fabulous photos from Week One on Camp Asia’s Facebook page at this link!

Just one month to go to get your stories in!

March 23, 2022 at 8:16 pm | Posted in Uncategorized, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a comment
Tags: A Terrific Tiger Tale writing competition, Competitions for primary school students, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Temujin, writing competitions

Princess Precious from The Tale of Temujin is thinking up a great idea for her story!

If you love writing stories, and you’re in Primary School anywhere in the world, you still have ONE MONTH to get your entries into my latest Clever Competition! Just go to the link here for all the details! I can’t wait to get your entry!

Hurry!! A few spaces still available for my Story Planning Workshop sessions with Camp Asia, for ages 8 to 12!

March 17, 2022 at 8:27 pm | Posted in writing workshops for children | Leave a comment
Tags: Camp Asia, Sarah Brennan's Story Planning Workshops, Writing courses for 8 to 12 year olds

If school’s broken up early and you’re at a loose end, or you just want to have some fun after school, I’ve got some great news for you! There are still a few spaces left in my funny and fabulous Story Planning Workshops with Camp Asia, starting next week! Just click here if you’re aged 8 to 10, and here if you’re aged 11 to 12, for all the information and to register right away!

And if you’re interested in any other courses being offered by Camp Asia, just click on this link!

I can’t wait to meet you!

Four fabulous sessions at Kennedy School!

March 17, 2022 at 12:04 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a comment
Tags: 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!

I introduce my toy panda to the Year 1s!
The Year 2s meet my toy dragon Billy Boy, cousin of Chester Choi!
Jimmy Lee and his friends the centipede and the cockroach go fishing!

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 comment
Tags: Asia Society Hong Kong, Sarah Brennan Youtube, Stories about Chinese history for kids, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Temujin

*_{Asia Society Hong Kong recording: 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 comment
Tags: 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 ***********!

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!

_{The fabulous and focussed Year 5s at Stamford American School Hong Kong}

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!

Session 3 last week with the Grade 3s at SASHK

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 comment
Tags: 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 comment
Tags: 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 comment
Tags: 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!