Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

New Competition: The Night my Hero came to Dinner!

What on earth would you do if Justin Bieber came to dinner? Or Venus Williams? Or Buddha? Would you  make polite chitchat over an elegant banquet…or would you order a pizza and gibber away like a nervous monkey? Whatever happened, it would be a night to remember! So why not write me a story all about it, and be eligible for one of my fabulous prizes? Go to my Clever Competitions page right away for all the details!

A Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to the Tai Hang Fire Dragon!

How quickly a year flies! It’s Mid-Autumn Festival again, when throughout China delicious moon cakes are eaten, beautiful lanterns go on display, and we remember all the old Chinese legends relating to the Moon.

But here in Hong Kong there’s another special celebration, when the people of the district of Tai Hang perform an amazing dragon dance through the streets, for 3 nights in a row! Thanks to my dear friend (and famous poet and photographer) Madeleine Marie Slavick, I was lucky enough to see the spectacular Tai Hang Dragon Dance for myself from her roof garden just above the crowds!

Legend has it that in 1880, when the Hong Kong district of Tai Hang (just near Hong Kong’s Central Library) was just a small Hakka village, a series of terrible disasters befell the village culminating in a dreadful plague. One of the village elders had a vivid dream in which Buddha instructed the villagers to light firecrackers and perform a dragon dance for the 3 days and 3 nights of the Mid-Autumn Festival.  The villagers did as the dream instructed, and the plague disappeared! (Some say it was the sulphur in the firecrackers which killed the germs!) So ever since, every year, the ritual is repeated.

Here are some photos that I took. The magnificent dragon is 67 metres long, and spiked with 72,000 burning incense sticks!!

It starts with a parade:

Then the thrilling beat of the drums, warning of the dragon’s approach:

Around the corner, the first tantalizing glimpse of the dragon’s tail, bristling with incense sticks:

At last! The first sight of the dragon’s fiery head, with its brilliantly glowing eyes!

It circles round:

And around…

Before winding up the street…            And circling around again!

Last but not least, no Chinese Festival parade would be complete without…

The skirl of the bagpipes!!!

Life gets stranger and stranger!

We’ve all heard about pigs that fly…but have you ever heard about a pig who thinks he’s a trained sheep dog? And what about a soldier who becomes a farmer who becomes a teacher who becomes one of the most successful and best-loved children’s writers in the United Kingdom! If you want to read either of these VERY strange stories, you need to click right away on my Brilliant Books page and my Amazing Authors page!

And if that’s not enough, you’re in for a fabulously strange Wicked Word this Week – click on the Wicked Word tab to find out all about it!

Welcome back … and congratulations to the winners in my summer writing competition!

Welcome back to the new school year! I hope you all had a fabulous summer holiday! I know that I certainly did – and you can read all about the fun I had in England with that rascal Rhonda Rabbit if you scroll down the blog!

And a very big congratulations to all the entrants into my Favourite Things Poem Competition – we had some excellent entries! Special congratulations to Natasha Diederen of UWCSEA in Singapore for winning first prize, and to the three runners-up! Their entries have just been published on my Clever Competitions page so click on the tab above right away to read some great new poems! A new competition will be coming soon, so keep visiting my blog to find out all about it!

Hello to some of my favourite English bookshops!

What a wonderful week I’ve had here in Old England! I’ve visited friends and family in London, Oxford and Brighton, seen great cities and wonderful old towns and villages, driven through the glorious English countryside in sun and rain (!) and eaten some scrumptious cream teas! But one  of the nicest things I’ve done is to visit some of England’s wonderful bookshops, where I’ve been very happy to talk to their knowledgeable staff, and to find my books on their shelves!

Here’s Wimbledon Books and Music:

And its owner Kathleen Cockerton with The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit:

And here’s one of London’s oldest and most beautiful bookshops, Daunts Books of Marylebone Street:

Just look at the fabulous interior:

And here’s me with Rhonda Rabbit on the bookshelves:

Lastly, here I am at the fabulous Bags of Books in Lewes in Brighton:

So if you want to know where to buy my books in England…those are just a few suggestions. Or if you don’t live nearby you could ask your local bookshop to order them via Bounce Sales and Marketing!

Thank you Blackwells Bookshop, Oxford!

A big thank you to Tom Osman and Rebecca Waiting of the world-famous Blackwells Bookshop in Oxford, for hosting my reading on Saturday 20 August of  The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit!

Here I am before the reading with the lovely Rebecca and my books!

And here are some Oxford bunnies!

Those of you who are familiar my readings will know that I usually bring my team of toy animals to help out! Alas they were all at home in Hong Kong, so Peter Rabbit (that quintessentially English rabbit) kindly agreed to stand in for my Chinese rabbit Ru Lin, and Agatha the Cat, Alice’s evil English cousin, agreed to keep him company! Naturally they wanted to take a stroll around Oxford to look at its famous universities and museums…

Here’s Peter Rabbit in front of the famous Sheldonian Theatre:

And the Venetian Bridge:

And here’s Agatha plotting Peter’s downfall outside Oxford’s famous Bodleian Library:

But two very charming young ladies from Oxford and Guangzhou respectively had a stern chat with Agatha, and persuaded her to say sorry to her bunny friend … here’s the moment they kissed and made up!

Goodbye to Oxford, that wonderful city of beauty, dreams and memories – I’ll see you again next January!

Adios again, amigos … I hope you have a HOPPY SUMMER HOLIDAY!

Hello again dear friends…I’ve been away the last couple of weeks and I’ve missed you!

But now I’m back, just in time to wish you all a wonderful, splendiferous, magnificent and magical summer holiday! And if you’re one of those budding authors who just HAS to write, or even if you’re just a bit bored and looking for something fun and challenging to do, there’s a brand new writing competition to enter over the holidays – see my Clever Competitions page for all the details!

Have a fabulous holiday…and remember, even if you’re not going anywhere special, books can take you anywhere you please! So whisk yourself away somewhere special in the pages of some brilliant books this summer!

More Wicked Words, Amazing Authors and Brilliant Books…!

Are your bookshelves resplendent with glorious books? Is your vocabulary resplendent with dazzling words? Hmmm…. I can see you scratching your head and saying “what’s resplendent“??? So quickly – go to my Wicked Words page to find out the latest Wicked Word to baffle your mum and dad, bamboozle your teacher, and above all, ANNOY your brothers and sisters!!

Then scoot along to my Brilliant Books page to read about a courageous mouse with big ears, an evil rat who loves soup and a servant girl with cauliflower ears who wants to be a princess!

And… if you REALLY want to be a writer, the best thing you can do today is to click on my Amazing Author page where the author of my latest Brilliant Book has many wise and wonderful words of advice for you!  So hop to it! It’s all waiting for you right now!

A big THANK YOU to CAIS!

A big thank you to teacher librarian Bryant McEntire, Kat and all the staff and kids at CAIS upper and lower schools for a fantastic TWO days this week! It was great to meet you all, and especially to meet in person so many competitors …and place-winners!… in my Clever Competitions! I look forward to more entries in the future!

AT LAST…THE RESULTS ARE OUT!

Phew! I’ve finally finished judging the sixty entries in my Chocolate and Chinese Emperor Story competition! And if someone shows me a single square of chocolate I’ll SCREAM!!!!! The results have just been posted so go to my Clever Competitions page to read the 5 winning entries in each category!  Special congratulations to Natasha Diederen of Grade 3, ISF Academy Hong Kong (overall winner of the Grade One to Grade Three Category) and Kelly Chen of Grade 6, Morrison Academy Kaohsiung, Taiwan (overall winner of the Grade Four to Grade Six Category) for their prize-winning entries!