Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Last day today!!

If you want to enter the Ode to My Favourite Tree poetry competition you’d better send your poem in today! All the rules and details are on my Clever Competitions page above. Quick sticks!!

Hellooo Think International School!

A big hello to all the terrific kids of Think International School, where I spent a very happy day today! We had story readings, with Pin Yin Panda meeting the Grade 1s, Temujin the Tiger roaring at the Grade 2s and my noble Dark Horse galloping in to see the Grade 3s and 5s. And then the clever Grade 4s and Grade 7s created a very exciting story plan involving aliens invading Clearwater Bay Beach on a hot summer day 100 years from now, in my Nailing the Narrative Curve Workshop! We had a lot of fun! Thanks so much to Melanie Bates for inviting me and to librarian Leanne Richardson (below) for looking after me so well! And kids – remember to read lots and lots of books – it’s health food for the brain!

Just 5 more days to go to get your entry in!

Quick sticks! You’ve got just 5 more days to get your entry into my latest writing competition: An Ode to my Favourite Tree! So if you haven’t sent yours in yet, you’d better get a move on! See my Clever Competitions page above for all the rules and information!

Three fabulous writing workshops at Discovery College!

I had a fantastic day yesterday with the Grade 4s to Grade 6s of Discovery College! First I gave them a talk about story planning to include all the essential elements of a great story, with a fun example to demonstrate my point! The Grade 4s got my Evil Vacuum Cleaner Mystery; the Grade 5s heard my Dog Kidnapped by Aliens Adventure; and the LUCKY Grade 6s got my beautiful, touching Romance about two of their class mates :)! Then it was all systems go as I put the kids on a stopwatch to produce a Story Plan covering all the bases! Some kids even finished a fabulous First Draft in the time available! Well done all of you! Remember that Story Plans are your best friends when it comes to Writing a Riveting Story! And big thanks to Leanne Sercombe, Information Literacy Coordinator and PYP Teacher Librarian, for inviting me!

A Parents’ Workshop at Green Oasis School, Shenzhen!

Thank you to Head of Primary Anne Marie Stock (left) for a lovely warm welcome at Green Oasis School in Shenzhen, where I spoke to a big crowd of concerned parents about the importance of reading books in the digital age, and how to turn their kids into enthusiastic Book Worms! Afterwards I had the chance to sign lots of books for the kids – here I am with Lydia above! And a warm hello to Oscar too – sadly our photo together didn’t turn out :(!

The first entry in my Clever Competition from the USA!

A big hello to Lillian Lee at Greenlake Elementary School in Washington State, USA! Lillian is officially the first competitor to enter my Clever Competitions from the United States of America! She has written a really beautiful poem about her favourite tree – we’ll see how she goes when the competition closes!

And in the meantime – if you haven’t started writing your poem, you’d better start now! There are just 16 more days to get your entry in! Go to the Clever Competitions page above to see all the details!

A funny and fabulous time at Kingston International School!

The crazy kids of Grade 3 Kingston International School and I had a ball this morning, with some fascinating Chinese history about the Emperor Han Wudi and the Silk Road, a story reading of my Tale of a Dark Horse, a workshop about How to Write Riveting Stories, and even a make-up mystery adventure, where the teachers got gobbled up by a defective vaccuum cleaner! It was fun! Thank you PYP co-ordinator Melissa Preisig for inviting me in again!

Now that’s a hug!

My dear friend and fellow Aussie author Jan Latta was at Dubbo Zoo in New South Wales in Australia this week – and sent me this gorgeous photo of Norman, the koala, having a hug with her and the zoo attendant Kristy! Isn’t Norman just adorable? But you do have to watch out for those claws! Jan is a famous wildlife photographer and writes fantastic books about endangered animals – you can find out all about her work at http://www.truetolifebooks.com.au.

Can you imagine what it must be like NOT to be able to read?

I know that all you wonderful kids who follow my blog are fantastic readers, and love your books to death! But stop for a minute and think – what would it be like NOT to be able to read? Not just books, but ANYTHING in writing? Why don’t you try and spend the next hour NOT reading any words at all – on your computer screen, your television screen, packets of food in the kitchen, road signs on the street, mail in the post, magazines, advertisements, not to mention your beloved books. And then imagine what that would be like for a lifetime.

That’s what life is like every day for over 60 million primary school aged kids around the world today! Take a look at this clip from Room To Read with Mum and Dad:

http://www.roomtoread.org/DoNotReadThis/

and think how incredibly lucky you are to be able to read! Never take that ability for granted!

And then, turn off your computer, pick up a good book and have a wonderful, thrilling, thought- provoking, funny, sad, magical and life-changing READ! That’s an order!

I’ve just been appointed a Room To Read Ambassador!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, or coming to my workshops and story readings, you’ll know how passionate I am about kids reading books – and I mean REAL books! And you’ll probably also have gathered that, as a mother of two daughters, I’m also passionate about the rights of all girls to an education! So I was over the moon to accept the invitation of Room to Read to become one of their Author Ambassadors! You’ll be hearing a lot more in my blog from now on about this wonderful charity and their fantastic work in promoting and enabling reading and education for children in Africa and Asia.  Thank you Jennie, Jodi and Helen for inviting me. I am truly honoured to become part of your wonderful organisation!

If you’d like to find out more about Room To Read and how you can help, you can visit their website right away at http://www.roomtoread.org – but don’t forget to share it with Mum and Dad!