Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Helloooo Kay Carl Elementary School, Las Vegas!

A big warm Hong Kong hello to the kids of Mrs Schrader’s class at Kay Carl Elementary School in Las Vegas! I’m really looking forward to our Skype visit today in just ten hours’ time! And if YOU want to say hello to the kids of Hong Kong – and kids all around the world who visit my blog – then why don’t you leave a comment on this post today?!

Books are proof that humans can work magic!

Here is a quote I just received from Hillary Lo, an exceptional student from Shatin Junior School who is a regular entrant in my Clever Competitions for writing. It’s from the extraordinary astrophysicist, cosmologist, writer and philosopher Carl Sagan – find out more about him at http://www.carlsagan.com/:

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

Thank you Hillary! And if you also have a fantastic quote about books or writing, please share it with us all by posting a comment on my Favourite Sayings page!

A Room without Books is like a Body without a Soul

Those are the words of the great Roman philosopher Cicero, writing over two thouand years ago. And how right he is. In the same way that our bodies are what we eat, our minds, hearts and souls are what we read. So if we don’t read books – lots and lots of books – we are starving our minds, bodies and souls.

There are so many wonderful quotes out there about reading, and books,  which inspire me every day. So I’ve decided to share them with you on  a brand new page called My Favourite Sayings. Just click on the new tab at the top of this page to have a read. And if you know any wonderful quotes about books or reading, or short poems that inspire you, why don’t you share them with us by posting a comment on my new page?

If you love Chinese Calligraphy…

SNAKE!

Then go right away to my Which Zodiac Animal Are You? Page above to see the beautiful calligraphy of Jason Huang, Melbourne resident and calligraphy teacher to Adam, a delightful Scotch College student who very generously gave me the drawings during my visit to his school! See my post on 13 February below for a photo of Adam and me with the Sign of  the Dragon!

More fabulous news from Australia!

NOW THAT’S WHAT YOU CALL A BRIGHT IDEA!!

Great news! The Chinese Calendar Tales are now all listed on the VICTORIAN Premier’s Reading Challenge List for 2013 – in addition to the New South Wales Premier’s Reading Challenge List! See the link showing my books here!

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/prc/books/default.htm

A Ssspecial Recording on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMuFyWe8gIU

For all my lovely fans who didn’t make it to my Hong Kong book launch on Saturday 2nd February, here’s a link to Bookazine’s youtube recording of my story telling! Huge thanks to Odessa So of FEML and Bookazine for making it!

And here are some great pics of the event too!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.532831340082720.125459.115531475146044&type=3

SSSybil Sssnake sssays…my new Clever Competition starts TODAY!

For all you budding authors and poets out there, my new Clever Competition has just been posted on my Clever Competitions Page! Click the tab at the top of this page right away for all the details and rules, as well as instructions as to how to send in your entry! Suffice to say, the subject is, of coursssse, a Poem about a Snake! Your time starts NOW and the deadline is Midnight GMT on Friday 7th June 2013. 

So get sssscribbling!

A fabulous day at Christian Alliance International School!

Thank you to all the dedicated staff and happy kids of Prep to Grade 3, CAIS, Kwai Chung campus! I loved my day with you all – you were so enthusiastic and welcoming, and listening to the staff singing and playing the piano so beautifully in the staff room at lunchtime was an unexpected delight! Here’s a photo of me above with the Grade 3s for our Poetry Workshop, and below with lovely librarian Jeannie Li and Justin Enns, my “slave” for the day who turned the pages as I told my Tale of Sybil Snake! Justin is a wonderful artist who drew lion cub Sparkle, mascot of the CAIS Read-a-Thon, on the poster in the picture! You CAIS kids are so lucky to have such gifted and creative teachers!

Hey it’s good to be back home again…in Hong Kong!

Those of you whose mums and dads used to hum along to the wonderful songs of  US singer/songwriter John Denver will know just what tune I’m singing when I say these words! I love my home country of Australia very much…but I also love Hong Kong, which has been my adopted home for the last 14 years! And it’s great to be back with my family and friends, not to mention my funny dog Bobby, and all the craziness of this busy, wonderful city! So hello again Hong Kong – it’s good to be home!

Hello Collingwood College – thanks for a ssssuper day!

Last but not least in my inaugural Melbourne Schools Tour was the remarkable Collingwood College – half Steiner school, half State school, which I visited last Friday. I was so impressed with the fantastic staff and creative kids, not to mention their wonderful artwork! Here I am above left with the staff in the Chinese department (from left: Jing Cheng, me, Lijuan Wang, Jenny Chen and Daisy Rao), who put on a special Chinese Day in the school for my visit! And below are some fabulous kids and remarkable artwork!