Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Creating Writers in the Digital Age at CAIS Kowloon City!

Last Monday I had the great pleasure of meeting more parents at Christian Alliance International School when we explored How to Create Great Writers in the Digital Age! We talked about the vital importance of reading books in creating good writers; about clearing kids’ schedules so they have precious time to play, to create, to dream, to read books and to write; about the fabulous benefits of reading aloud to children; keeping diaries and writers’ notebooks; using the internet with cunning; and the importance of Turning Off the Technology on a regular basis! Many thanks to my lovely host Tracy Gliddon for her warm welcome!

Just 10 DAYS to go in my Hair-Raising Halloween Poem Competition!

I hope you all had a suitably Hair-Raising Halloween last weekend! And now if you haven’t entered my poetry competition yet, it’s time to get to work! You’ve got just 10 days more to get your entries in! Go to my Clever Competitions page above for all the details! Mwahaha!

It’s been a BUSY month as a Cheeky Monkey comes to town!!!

Hello my friends, it’s been SUCH a busy month with a big office move, some fab school visits to Christian Alliance International School, PLK CKY in Piper’s Point and Think International School in Kowloon Tong for story readings, writing workshops and a parent workshop, and a bookstall at St John’s Cathedral Michaelmas Fair last weekend! Not to mention delivery of our gorgeous new book for next Chinese New Year from the printers! Phew! Here’s the front page (above) for a sneak preview! You can get it in the shops in Hong Kong from next week!

The results of my latest Clever Competition for Primary School Kids are out!

AT last the results are out for CLEVER COMPETITION NO. 25: A TALE OF THREE CHINESE CHARACTERS STORY COMPETITION!

And what a TERRIBLE time I had judging this competition –because your stories were all so good!

Your stories took me on the most exciting journeys through China, from the Forbidden City in Beijing to the Great Wall of China to the Silk Road to Dunhuang – and beyond to Mongolia, India and even Australia! I met famous historical characters such as the mighty Emperor Qin Shi Huang and the great maritime explorer Zheng He, as well as magical beings like witches, pirates, dragons, fairies and ghosts. There were princesses of every description, from kind and clever to greedy and cruel; from cheeky to moody to ugly to beautiful. Some were artists, others were scientists; there was even a princess rabbit! Your talking frogs were all wonderful characters: some wise and kind, others greedy and ambitious; some royal, some cursed, and all of them quite magical. Then there were the rams, which were usually clever and sensible and very wise, but on occasion very silly and sometimes even evil! As you can imagine, I had a lot of fun reading about them all!

This time, there were 36 entries from 16 different schools in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney! The standard was very high, so it was very difficult indeed to choose the six finalists in each age category. Special congratulations to outstanding writers Emily Davis, of Grade 2, Arden Anglican School in Beecroft, Sydney, overall winner of the Grades 1 to 3 Category, and Warren Cheong of Year 5, German Swiss International School Hong Kong, who was overall winner of the Grades 4 to 6 Category.

Go to my Clever Competitions page above right away to read all the winning entries – you’re in for a treat!