Chinese Calendar Tales | Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Patience, my writer friends…

_{From The Tale of Temujin, illustrated by Harry Harrison}

If you’re one of the dedicated writers who entered my Terrific Tiger Tale writing competition, you’ll be wanting to know who won places! But I’m still reading and hugely enjoying your stories, so you’ll have to bear with me a little while longer! Hang in there, and if you get frustrated, just let out a little ROAR – it always helps :)!

Time’s up in the Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition!

March 29, 2021 at 8:00 pm | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a comment
Tags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition, The Tale of Oswald Ox

*_{Illustration by Harry Harrison from The Tale of Oswald Ox}*

Time’s up my friends in my Oxcellent Ox Tale writing competition, and WOW! how hard so many of you have been working! I haven’t counted them all yet, but there are at least 50 entries from at least 19 schools in Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Australia and the UK! So this competition is going to take quite some time to judge :)! Please bear with me, and I’ll announce the results as soon as possible!

Some happy kids meet Ming Kee Monkey!

November 24, 2020 at 11:42 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Kids4Kids HK | Leave a comment
Tags: Books about Chinese Zodiac for kids, Books about monkeys, Chinese Calendar Tales, Kids4Kids Hong Kong, Po Leung Kuk Wong Wing Shu Primary School, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey, The Year of the Monkey

Thank you David Wong, Director of Operations at one of my favourite reading charities, Kids4Kids Hong Kong, who has just sent me this photo of a fabulous bunch of kids from Po Leung Kuk Wong Wing Shu Primary School in Hong Kong, each holding a copy of my book The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey! I was delighted to donate the books to this wonderful charity a few months ago, and it’s great to see my mischievous little monkey spreading some happiness and fun to the kids of Hong Kong!

The Hong Kong Young Reader’s Festival 2018 has begun – and it’s fantastic!

March 5, 2018 at 9:00 pm | Posted in Favourite kids' books, Hong Kong events, Literary Festivals | Leave a comment
Tags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Harry Harrison, Hong Kong festivals, Hong Kong International Literary Festival, Hong Kong Young Readers International Literary Festival 2016, The Tale of Desmond Dog

Hello again! I’m SOOOO excited! The Hong Kong Young Reader’s Festival 2018 has just begun and there’s so much for kids from 4 to 104 to do and see! There’s a fantastic schools program of course and also some great FREE events! (Not to mention a fabulous official poster by Harry Harrison, above!)

THIS WEEKEND there will be an amazing line-up of famous children’s authors, illustrators and performers appearing at eight FREE public events – you can read about them all at the HKYRF website! The events take place at Lee Gardens Two, outside 217-218, 28 Yun Ping Road, Causeway Bay from 1.45pm to 6pm!

And if you want to meet my dashing Desmond Dog, come along and hear me read his story in my session from 1.45 – 2.45pm! Here are the details! I look forward to seeing you all there!

Ooops! Harry sends a naughty Chinese New Year greeting…

February 20, 2018 at 2:16 pm | Posted in Chinese New Year | Leave a comment
Tags: Books about Chinese Zodiac for kids, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese New Year, Harry Harrison, The Dirty Stories, The Year of the Dog

Now I know that I do bang on about not using toilet humour in your stories for my Clever Competitions…but I can’t resist sending you this fabulous Chinese New Year greeting from Harry Harrison, beloved illustrator of the Chinese Calendar Tales and the Dirty Stories! It made me giggle out loud – and I especially love the look on the dragon’s face! Thanks Harry for keeping us all laughing this Chinese New Year!

Come to the Hong Kong launch of Desmond Dog!

January 29, 2018 at 7:40 pm | Posted in Book launches, Bookazine Princes Building, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Bookshop event, Story Readings | Leave a comment
Tags: Bookazine Princes Building, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese history for kids, Ching Shih, Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Year of the Dog

If you’re in Hong Kong on Saturday 10th February, then come and join Harry Harrison and me at the Hong Kong launch of our latest Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Desmond Dog! It’s a true Hong Kong story, set in the fishing village of what we now call Aberdeen, with a noble dog, a wicked pirate queen and lots of pirates and treasure! It’s for kids from 4 to 12 years old – and for anyone who loves dogs, Hong Kong, and Chinese history!!! I look forward to seeing you all there! And remember to RSVP to Bookazine at the number/email address on the invitation above!

Desmond Dog’s Beijing launch at the Bookworm Cafe was fabulous fun!

January 28, 2018 at 8:16 pm | Posted in Beijing, Book launches, Bookshop event, Bookworm Cafe Beijing | Leave a comment
Tags: Bookworm Cafe, Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese Zodiac, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Year of the Dog

Desmond Dog and I had fabulous fun this afternoon at Beijing’s famous Bookworm Cafe! A lovely bunch of kids, mums and dads came to hear The Tale of Desmond Dog and all the scrumptious Chinese history behind the story! Then we had a fun quiz with questions for everyone from 2 years old to some really ancient ages :), with toy dog prizes, and finally a book signing! It was wonderful to meet such an enthusiastic crowd who love their Chinese history just as much as I do! Huge thanks to Peter Goff, and his lovely assistants Zoe and Nancy, for hosting me today – I look forward to working with the Bookworm Cafe again when I return to Beijing in March for the Literary Festival!

And thank you Zoe for these fabulous photos of the story reading…

and the book-signing…

and last but not least, some new friends!

Peter Goff, owner of the Bookworm Cafe! I wonder if you can guess which animal family in the Chinese Zodiac Peter belongs to, and which one I belong to?

Sima and Nicky Tebbutt and their lovely parents Tatjana and Dan from Ukraine and
Australia (together with “their” animals of the Chinese Zodiac)…

The marvellous creators of the Heckerty series (about that crazy green witch Zanzibar and her adventures), Allan Davidson and Jan Ziff! Here, my dragon Billy Boy is trying to eat Zanzibar, but gives up in the end and lets Zanzibar fly him away! I think they’re going to be firm friends too!

Small is Beautiful at BIBS in Beijing!

January 25, 2018 at 7:43 pm | Posted in Beanstalk International Bilingual School, Beijing Schools, Being an Author, Clever Competitions | Leave a comment
Tags: Books about China for kids, Chinese Calendar Tales, Ching Shih, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Desmond Dog, Writing Competitions for Kids

What a happy day I had at Beanstalk International Bilingual School Shunyi Campus today! Although it was FREEZING outside, the welcome inside was warm and very friendly from everybody, from the gorgeous kids to their lovely parents to the dedicated staff! The Grade 1s met my hungry, lonely dragon in The Tale of Chester Choi; the Grade 2s screamed like spoiled princesses and roared like tigers very convincingly as I read them The Tale of Temujin; the Grade 3s and 4s learned about the world’s most successful pirate Ching Shih and about Hong Kong too when they heard The Tale of Desmond Dog, and the Grade 5s asked some fabulous questions after I told them all about my journey to becoming an author, why I wrote The Chinese Calendar Tales and that very important question – what is my writing process? I was delighted to find out that, like me, they were all firm fans of making story plans before they wrote their first draft of a story! So I’m really looking forward to some great entries from the BIBS Grade 5s in my current Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition (details on the Clever Competition page here).

Warm thanks to wonderful librarian Heather Wright (with me above) who expertly hosted me today, and thank you to the mums and dads and kids who bought over 100 books! I hope to see you all again soon!

Hello Keystone Academy!

January 22, 2018 at 7:08 pm | Posted in Beijing Schools, Keystone Academy, Uncategorized, workshops | 2 Comments
Tags: Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese culture, Chinese folklore, Chinese history, Chinese Zodiac, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Year of the Dog

I’ve just spent the first of two fun days at Keystone Academy! From its huge campus to its Hogwarts-esque buildings, its stylish boarding house to its stunning primary library, it’s a very impressive school indeed! This morning I met the Year 4s, telling them all about how I weave Chinese history, folklore and culture into my Chinese Calendar Tales, then spent a session after lunch with the Year 3s, walking them through the making of my latest book The Tale of Desmond Dog! Then it was off to the middle school lecture hall, where students from primary and upper school and some lovely mums and dads came to hear me reading Desmond Dog’s story! Here’s some of my audience above! To my right is my lovely host, primary librarian Jennifer Fuentes, together with Lizzie Wong to her right. To my left is Year 9 student Tori Gu, who was kind enough to collect me at the airport with Carlie Spruill (to her left) and who is a fantastic ambassador for the school! And to the left of Carlie is Elaine Yin. A big thank you to Jennifer, Carlie, Lizzie, Elaine and Tori for making me feel so welcome – not to mention all the wonderful teachers, students and parents! I look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow!

Thank you Stamford American School of Hong Kong!

January 18, 2018 at 5:40 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Stamford American School Hong Kong, workshops | Leave a comment
Tags: A Dirty Story, Chinese Calendar Tales, How to Write a Riveting Story, Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, The Tale of Desmond Dog

Today I spent a fantastic day at the brand new Stamford American School of Hong Kong in Ho Man Tin! It’s a wonderful place and I really enjoyed meeting all the terrific kids and teachers! The Kindies and Grade 1s learned some fun environmental lessons with a story reading of A Dirty Story, and at the end of the session promised me hand on heart NOT to become Grots! The Grade 2s met my latest Chinese Calendar Tales character in The Tale of Desmond Dog and the Grade 3s enthusastically answered all my questions in my How to Write A Riveting Story workshop! Many thanks to the lovely Lisa Olinski (with me above) who was the perfect host! I look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow!