Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Clever Competition No. 25 starts TODAY!

What better way to celebrate a Chinese holiday…not to mention a day off school if you’re lucky enough to live in Hong Kong…than to dream up a fabulous story set in China! So it’s high time we had another international writing competition, and this time you’re going to have to get your imagination hats on, because I want a story of great originality and fun, set in China, involving three very different Chinese characters: a ram, a Chinese princess and a frog!  It can be a mystery, an adventure, or even a romance! And because I know you love a good challenge, there are a few other ingredients you must include! Go to my Clever Competitions page (above) right away to see all the rules and conditions. (I’ve also set out exactly what I’ll be looking for when I judge the competition, so make sure you pay careful attention before planning your first draft!) I’m giving you lots of time for this one, including the summer holidays in case you’d like a fun challenge to fill those holiday hours! The competition deadline is Sunday 6th September.

Happy Birthday Buddha!

(The Reclining Buddha, Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai)

In the West it might be a Bank Holiday today…but here in Hong Kong, we are celebrating Buddha’s Birthday! Legend has it that when Buddha was born, nine dragons sprayed him with water to bathe him. So today, in temples across Hong Kong, people gather to bathe statues of Buddha in bowls of water! The biggest ceremony is of course held at the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island, near the world’s biggest statue of Buddha!

Fabulous Fun at the ELCHK Lutheran Academy Book Fair!

Today my lovely office manager Mita and I spent the day at the ELCHK Lutheran Academy Book Fair where we met lots and lots of lovely fans, and sold lots and lots of lovely books! Here I am with two very special fans:

Introducing Hayes Ng, from Year 5BH, who was selling his own fantastic comic books, which he made by himself – they were great fun! Hayes has written at least 5 books, and is a very talented young writer!

And here is my BIGGEST fan at the Fair, Eunice Tang, who bought every single one of my books! She’s a great reader, and I’m sure will become a great writer too!

A Big Hello to Rodney Ram’s Littlest Fan!

A big hello to little Joshua, the son of one of my lovely printers at Macmillan Production (Asia) Limited, who just LOVES Rodney Ram! In fact, his Dad tells me that he loves my book so much, he’s even chewed some of the pages! Now that’s what I call a real fan!

Thank you to the fabulous staff and students of ELCHK Lutheran Academy!

A big thank you to Dr Solomon Basimalla for inviting me to speak today at ELCHK Lutheran Academy in Yuen Long. It was great to meet the whole school! The Year 1s to Year 3s met my cheeky Pin Yin Panda; the Year 4s to Year 6s met Rodney Ram; the Year 7s to 9s heard all about why Books are a Brain’s Best Friend, and last but not least, the Year 10s to Year 11s learned how to Publish a Book from Brilliant Idea to Final Product! It was a BIG day! I can’t wait to see you all at the Book Fair on Thursday! And I’m giving a very special discount on my books, so you can buy lots and pots, and I can sign them all for you – yippee!

Thanks for the fabulous blogpost, Debbie Alvarez a.k.a the Stylin’ Librarian!

A huge thank YOU to Debbie Alvarez, primary librarian at Bradbury School here in Hong Kong, but also the fabulous Stylin’ Librarian of blogosphere fame, for her latest author blogpost, all about me and my books! Here it is for you all to read right away! http://thestylinglibrarian.com/2015/05/15/styling-librarian-author-interview-with-sarah-brennan/

Room To Read needs our urgent help!

Hello my friends. As you may already know, there was a big earthquake in Nepal on Saturday. Nepal is where everything started with Room to Read, and since they started work there, they have built over 1100 schools! They estimate that up to one quarter of these may have been destroyed in the earthquake. This is terrible news for all the kids, who now have no school, no libraries, and no books. Imagine how horrible that would be! So please ask Mum and Dad to go to the Room to Read website at http://www.roomtoread.org/ to see what you and your family can do to help, and please tell all your friends about it.

Have patience my friends!

I know that you’re all waiting to find out the results of my Shaggy Sheep Poem Competition, and I promise you that I’m judging them all as fast as I can! So please have patience! I hope to have all the results published, and all the schools notified, by the end of this weekend! Hang in there!