A great day with my friends at DBIS!
March 12, 2016 at 2:25 pm | Posted in Children's Chinese Zodiac Books, Chinese New Year, School visits, workshops | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Poetry workshops, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey
A big HELLOOOO to my old friends, the kids and teachers of Discovery Bay International School, where I spent a very happy day on Friday! The Year 5s and 6s unscrambled limericks, identified haikus, invented acrostics and rhymed tricky words in my Introduction to Poetry workshop; the Year 1s and 2s learnt all about what it’s like to be an author, and the Year 3s and 4s heard my Tale of Ming Kee Monkey! It was great to be with you all again! Warm thanks to Naomi Gist, DBIS Library Co-ordinator, my fantastic host for the day!
A fun interview with Noreen Mir at RTHK3!
March 12, 2016 at 1:58 pm | Posted in Books about Chinese Zodiac, children's literacy, Chinese New Year, Press | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, RTHK3, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey, Year of the Monkey
On Thursday I had a fabulous interview with Noreen Mir at RTHK3 in Kowloon Tong. If you want to hear us talk about The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey, the fantastic history behind it, as well as all my other books about the Chinese Zodiac AND how to become great readers and writers in the digital age, here is the link!
Ming Kee appears at the HK Young Readers Lit Fest THIS SUNDAY!
March 9, 2016 at 4:19 pm | Posted in Bookshop event, Literary Festivals | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Growhouse, Hong Kong International Young Readers Festival, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey
Ming Kee Monkey and I are appearing at the Hong Kong International Young Readers Literary Festival this weekend on Sunday, 13th March from 10am to 11am at ,G/F Baskerville House, 13 Duddell Street / 22 Ice House Street, Central, Hong Kong! If you want to meet my monkey and hear her tale of mischief, mayhem and the getting of wisdom, then make sure to book at http://www.eventbee.com/v/yrf2015/event?eid=179136194 ! We look forward to meeting you there! Here below is Harry Harrison’s fantastic poster for the Festival!
A Misty Day at The Peak School!
March 9, 2016 at 4:00 pm | Posted in Books about Chinese Zodiac, School visits, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, The Peak School, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey
What a magical day it was today at The Peak School – I swear that Chester Choi was flapping around us near his magic cave, high up that misty mountain today! I had four fabulous sessions with the Year 3s and Year 4s, who all heard my Ming Kee Monkey’s tale, while learning all about Xuanzang, the great Buddhist traveller, and the wonderful Emperor Taizong of Tang…not to mention the rare animals of Yunnan’s jungles! Many thanks to my friend, teacher librarian Liz Mills-Campbell and lovely library technician Susan, for hosting me today. I can’t wait to get all your entries in my Clever Competition (see button above)! And a big hello to a very cute student in Year 3, below, who came to Book Week this week as Pin Yin Panda and even built a model of Pin Yin’s home in the Wolong forest in Sichuan! Here we are with the model, and my cheeky Pandora panda, having a play date with Pin Yin Panda!
The Deadly Deadlines are chasing YOU!
March 8, 2016 at 4:11 pm | Posted in Book Awards, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Clever Competition, The Tale of Rodney Ram
YIKES! The deadlines are coming, thick and fast! There are just:
3 MORE DAYS to vote for The Tale of Rodney Ram in the Younger Readers category in the Golden Dragon Book Awards 2016! So if you are a school student, teacher or parent living in Hong Kong, and you haven’t cast your vote yet, here is your final reminder! Please go to
http://www.hkgoldendragonawards.org/voting.html right away to cast your vote! If you’re not sure if your school is affiliated with the Awards, speak to your teacher or librarian at school right away and ask them to contact the organisers urgently!
16 MORE DAYS to enter my Mischievous Monkey Story Competition! If you are a primary school student anywhere in the world, you are eligible to enter, and entry is FREE of charge! Please go to http://www.sarahbrennanblog.com on the Clever Competitions Page for all the details!
So you’d better get a move on, or those deadlines are going to eat you up for dinner!
And finally, if you want to see what Rodney Ram, Ming Kee Monkey and I have been up to for the last 6 months in schools in Australia, Singapore, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, including some great new Youtube videos, press, photos and school testimonials, go to my website at http://sarah-brennan.com for my latest mega-update!
Another day of publishing workshops at Shatin Junior School!
March 8, 2016 at 3:20 pm | Posted in School visits, workshops | Leave a commentTags: Publishing workshops, Shatin Junior School
Many thanks to the Fabulous Five Year 5 teachers at Shatin Junior for having me again today, to talk to their business-minded students about the ins and outs of publishing your own book, from Brilliant Idea to Final Product! I look forward to seeing all your creations on the bookshelves of bookstores in Hong Kong in the years to come! See you all again next Tuesday!
A fun day with my old friends at Shatin Junior School!
March 7, 2016 at 5:04 pm | Posted in Books about Chinese Zodiac, Chinese New Year, School visits, Story Readings, workshops | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Publishing workshops, Shatin Junior School, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey
It was great to see my old friends at Shatin Junior School again today, and to introduce all the kids from Year 1 to Year 5 to my mischievous Ming Kee Monkey…not to mention the great Emperor Taizong of Tang, the brave Buddhist traveller Xuanzang, and The Legend of the Monkey King and the Journey to the West! And after a fun day of story readings, I ended with a workshop with Class 5.4 on Publishing Picture Books from Brilliant Idea to Final Product! During my publishing workshop, I had the great pleasure to meet a fellow-publisher, Justin Au, who has published his own fantastic book of cartoons! Here we are below with our books:
I’ll be back again with more workshops for the Year 5s tomorrow, and with Writing Workshops for the Year 4s next Tuesday. I can’t wait! Many thanks to literacy co-ordinator Skye Jeynes for inviting me!
Just 6 more days to vote for Rodney Ram!
March 5, 2016 at 4:54 pm | Posted in Book Awards, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese Zodiac, Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese Zodiac, The Golden Dragon Book Awards, The Tale of Rodney Ram, Year of the Sheep
YIKES! There are just 6 more days to vote for my handsome, romantic, shy ram and The Tale of Rodney Ram in The Golden Dragon Book Awards 2016 Younger Readers Section! So if you’re a Hong Kong school student, teacher or parent, make sure you cast your vote at http://www.hkgoldendragonawards.org/voting.html right away!
An Homage to Hobart with my mischievous Monkey!
March 5, 2016 at 4:27 pm | Posted in Hobart, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey, Year of the Monkey
Farewell to my beautiful home town Hobart, which I left with great sadness to return home to Hong Kong yesterday! It was wonderful to come home to my family, and Bobby our dog of course, but I’m already missing the clear skies, incredible beauty, peace and calm of Hobart, and of course the delicious food, my Tassie relatives, and my friends both new and old!
So here is an homage to my birthplace, in company with my cute Monkey Bear, a.k.a. Monkey Monkey, cousin of my mischievous Ming Kee Monkey!
Early morning, Sandy Bay by the yacht club (there were even wild ducks and galahs on the grass!)
Afternoon at MONA (Tasmania’s world-famous Museum of Old and New Art), at Berriedale, nestled amongst grapevines on a bend in the Derwent River!
Driving home via Cornelian Bay, with its pretty boathouses and view of The Tasman Bridge:
We dropped in to see the Governor at Tasmania’s beautiful Government House, by the Botanical Gardens, but sadly nobody let us in!
Dusk at the famous Salamanca Place with Kelly’s Steps…
And finally, Battery Point; heritage-listed and full of historical buildings, with my dear school friend Sally Kennedy (nee Barrett) posing with Monkey Monkey in Arthur’s Circus!
Goodbye beautiful Hobart, I’ll be back next year with my next book for the Year of the Rooster!
A great day at Goodwood Primary School!
March 3, 2016 at 5:52 pm | Posted in Being an Author, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese New Year, Chinese Zodiac, Hobart, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese Zodiac, Story Readings, The Tale of a Dark Horse, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
What a fantastic time I had with the fabulous kids of Goodwood Primary School today! The Year 1 to Year 3s met my feisty, vain Pin Yin Panda, then the Year 4 to Year 6s learned all about the origins of the Silk Road, the Emperor Han Wudi, and my beautiful, proud Dark Horse! It was great to meet you all, and to introduce you to my books about the Chinese Zodiac animals! I look forward to getting entries from lots of Goodwood kids in my Clever Competition! A big thank you to my beautiful cousin and literacy teacher Susie Eades, who invited me in to the school today! Here we are above with a backdrop of my beloved Mount Wellington, and you can see my soft toy Monkey Monkey hiding inside the yellow box, about to start sky-diving!
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