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!
Goodbye Ox, hello Tiger!!
January 31, 2022 at 4:00 pm | Posted in Chinese New Year | Leave a commentTags: The Year of the Tiger
It’s Chinese New Year’s Eve, and the wise old Ox is on his way out, ready for a good rest after a rather difficult year! And now it’s time to say a big hello to the TIGER!
Now they say that Tigers are very hard to resist! Like Temujin in my book The Tale of Temujin, they make charismatic and brave leaders, who love adventure and challenges, yet they also make sensitive and considerate friends. On the other hand, they’re also often unpredictable, and they can be very bad-tempered when they’re trapped in a corner! So it looks like this year, we might be in for a roller-coaster of a ride!!
Hold onto your seats!!
Hooray! Maggie and Methuselah is short-listed for the Golden Dragon Book Awards 2021-22!
January 13, 2022 at 10:14 pm | Posted in Book Awards | Leave a commentTags: ALESS Hong Kong, Books about Hong Kong, Books about Hong Kong history for kids, The Golden Dragon Book Awards, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah
I’m so excited! The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah has been short-listed for the Golden Dragon Book Awards 2021-2022! The three other short-listed books look amazing, and I’m so honoured that my book is listed up there with them! Thank you Hong Kong ALESS! If you want to purchase your own copy of my book, just click on the link above!
Fun sessions at Sau Ming Primary School in Hong Kong!
December 17, 2021 at 4:00 pm | Posted in Zoom visits | Leave a commentTags: Sau Ming Primary School, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Tale of Temujin, Wiseman Education
Many thanks to Clement Chung and Richard Chan (above) at Wiseman Education for inviting me to present 6 sessions to the gifted kids of Classes 2E, 3E and 4D at Sau Ming Primary School in Hong Kong! Class 2E listened to The Tale of Chester Choi, about a hungry and lonely Chinese Dragon; Class 3E heard about a superfast and clever rat in The Tale of Run Run Rat, and Class 4D enjoyed The Tale of Temujin about a tiger who was just like Genghis Khan! Then they answered some tricky puzzles about rhyming words, some cunning questions to test how much they remembered the story, and then we did some predicting about what happened next! We all had a lot of fun! I hope to see you all again soon!
Coffee and Conversations and Me!
December 3, 2021 at 12:21 am | Posted in media articles | Leave a commentTags: Coffee and Conversations, Inspiring magazines, Shikha Lamba, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah
A big thank you to the lovely Shikha Lamba, publisher of the stunning e-magazine, Coffee and Conversations, for this lovely author feature! Shikha’s magazine features fascinating interviews with exceptional writers, artists and thinkers from around Asia and is one of my favourite reads, so I feel very humble and honoured to be their featured author this month! Click on this link to read more (and subscribe too if you want to be encouraged, uplifted and inspired every month!)
The Asian Review of Books loves Maggie and Methuselah!
November 15, 2021 at 4:23 pm | Posted in Book reviews | Leave a commentTags: Asian Review of Books, Blacksmith Books, Books about Hong Kong for kids, Chapter books for pre-teens, Charly Cheung, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah
A big thank you to Melanie Ho, book reviewer for the Asian Review of Books, for her lovely review of my new chapter book for pre-teens, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah! Publisher Pete Spurrier at Blacksmith Books, artist Charly Cheung and I were soooo happy to read it!
Here’s the reviewer’s conclusion:
“Books set in Hong Kong can sometimes have a doe-eyedness about them, where the authors over-explain any inclusion of Hong Kong history, culture and traditions or where the characters and descriptions end up reading as tired and clichéd. This is happily not the case with Brennan and Cheung, whose knowledge, experience and sense of Hong Kong allow them to skillfully integrate history, customs and geography in a fun tale with rich illustrations. A good, old-fashioned adventure awaits.“
You can read the complete review HERE! And if you haven’t bought your own copy yet, you can purchase it at your favourite bookshop, or from anywhere in the world online by clicking this link!
Well done Vincy and thank you Kids4Kids!
November 2, 2021 at 10:20 pm | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Hong Kong history for kids, Kids4Kids Hong Kong, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah, True Hong Kong mysteries
Meet Vincy Chan, winner of the Kids4Kids Quiz Competition after my Author Visit via Zoom recently with my new book, The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah! Vincy very cleverly answered all the quiz questions correctly and gave a winning description of where she thinks the missing Chater Collection might be found! Here’s what Vincy said:
“I think the beautiful missing collection will be in the government house’s humongous, magnificent garden and there will be an odd, smelly tunnel. You will find a gold, antique key and a brain racking poem that could help you find those unique paintings. Those appealing paintings will be in an old, wooden chest covered with gold and silver coins.”
I think that with writing skills like this, Vincy is well on the way to becoming an author herself! Well done Vincy!
You can listen to my session at Kids4Kids – and learn some fascinating Hong Kong history, as well as find out all about my funny, exciting new chapter book HERE! Thank you David Wong and the inspiring team at Kids4Kids for making this recording available! And thank you to Vincy’s dad for this beautiful portrait of Vincy!
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