Just 24 days left to enter my Practically Perfect Pig Tale story competition!
April 17, 2019 at 8:55 am | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Books about the Year of the Pig, Clever Competitions, Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
Ping Pong Pig and I would like to remind you all that there are just 24 days left to enter your story in my Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition! Now Easter’s coming this weekend, which gives you loads of lovely time to sit down and write your story! It’s got some fabulously fun ingredients this time – so grab that pen and get writing! All the rules and how to submit are here!
And if you still haven’t bought your copy of The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, just click on this link!
I’m posting the Competition Results today!
November 18, 2018 at 10:18 am | Posted in Clever Competitions, Poetry competitions for children, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, Harry Harrison, Perfect Pet Poem Competition, The Tale of Run Run Rat
I’ve been busy as Run Run Rat going to the market in Harry Harrison’s wonderful illustration above! See The Tale of Run Run Rat
Huge thanks, and apologies, to my loyal writer fans who have been waiting so very patiently for the results of my Perfect Pet Poem Competition! I’ve been HUGELY busy the last two weeks, with my lovely daughter Annabel sitting her final IB exams (which requires a lot of mother love and attention!) and a very busy time at work getting ready for the release of my next Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, into the shops! So I’ve had not a moment to finalise the results! But today, the house is quiet, I’m putting the final touches to my judging – and you’ll hear from me later today! YAY! Thank you so much for your patience!
It’s time for a new Clever Competition!
August 19, 2018 at 6:15 pm | Posted in Book Week, Clever Competitions, Poetry competitions for children, Writing competitions for kids | 4 CommentsTags: Clever Competitions, Poetry competition, Primary School writing competition
Hello all my lovely followers out there! I’ve been away on summer holidays with my family, and have just had a fantastic time in Melbourne for Book Week, and now I’m back on deck here in Hong Kong! So it’s high time for another challenge for you budding writers!
This time you must write a poem about a Perfect Pet! It can be your pet, or a pet you’d love to have, or even somebody else’s pet! It can any sort of pet – from an ant to an elephant, so long as it’s a pet you’d love to have!
It can be any sort of poem too! Go to my Clever Competitions page here to find out how to enter and to check out all the rules!
The deadline is Sunday, 28th October, so get out your pen and paper, and start writing now! I can’t wait to read your entry!
The results are out in my Dashing Dog Story Competition!
May 2, 2018 at 3:40 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, writing competitions | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition
At long last I’ve finished the judging of my Dashing Dog Story Competition! I had some important family matters to attend to over the last month, and as we all know, family comes first – even when there’s an exciting competition to be judged! So thank you all so much for your patience! There were a very impressive 66 entries in all, from students in 17 different schools in 7 cities around the world: Beijing, Changzhou, Chicago, Doha, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Shanghai. The overall standard of the stories was very high, making it extremely difficult to pick the order of the winners!
Special congratulations to the first place winners in each category:
FIRST PLACE in GRADE ONE TO THREE CATEGORY: Hannah Thompson, Grade 3 Methodist Ladies College, Kew, Melbourne, 8 years old
FIRST PLACE in GRADE FOUR TO SIX CATEGORY: Aoife Mary Walshe, 4th grade, SUIS HongQiao Campus, Shanghai, 9 years old
And to the ten other place-winners! If you’d like to read their fabulous stories, click here right away!
Enjoy!
Two fun-filled days at Shatin Junior School!
March 2, 2018 at 11:03 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Shatin Junior School, workshops | Leave a commentTags: Book Week, Clever Competitions, How to Write a Riveting Story, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Year of the Dog, Writing workshops for kids
Thank you to my dear friends at Shatin Junior School for two fabulous days on Wednesday and Thursday as part of their Book Week celebrations! You can see three fab teachers above, getting into bossy, huggy trouble!! Desmond Dog and I met the whole of primary school in two BIG story reading sessions, then I worked with all the Grade 4s in 5 fab How to Write a Riveting Story sessions! I hope to see LOTS of great entries in my Dashing Dog Story Competition – details here! And an extra big thank you to my wonderful host, and friend, Karen Hubbard! More photos to come!
Ahoy there! Just 31 days left to enter your Dashing Dog Story in my Clever Competition!
February 20, 2018 at 2:38 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Ching Shih, Clever Competitions, Harry Harrison, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Year of the Dog, Writing Competitions for Kids
Ching Shih would like to remind you all that you have only 31 days left until the deadline of the Dashing Dog Story Competition! She would also like to remind you that failure to enter might just result in your being tied in knots and hoisted overboard!!!!
So heave ho me hearties, and send those stories in! It’s very chilly at the bottom of the South China Sea! All the details you need are here!
It’s time for a Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition!
January 14, 2018 at 5:17 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Chinese Calendar Tales, Writing competitions for kids | 5 CommentsTags: Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Dashing Dog Story Writing Competition, The Tale of Desmond Dog
Are you a primary school student anywhere in the world? Do you love DOGS? Do you love writing stories? Then it’s time to enter my latest international Clever Competition, The Dashing Dog Story Competition!
Introducing Desmond Dog, the latest loveable character in the Chinese Calendar Tales series! Like all Chinese Zodiac dogs, he’s brave, noble and kind, and he LOVES protecting his little village, keeping everybody safe from harm! And of course, his Year of the Chinese Zodiac is just around the corner!
So it’s about time that we had a story writing competition all about DOGS! This time I want you to write me a story about a typical Chinese Zodiac Dog, like Desmond. I want him to be brave, kind, honourable and above all, DASHING!! You also must have
- a title for your story, the more interesting the better!
- a Chinese setting – be that a village, a city, a river, a lake, a mountain or even a Chinese planet in the future! So you’ll have to do a bit of research, and make sure to include lots of details which make the setting typically Chinese!
- a scary typhoon!
- a flying fish with golden scales
- a wise philosopher
- an evil cat
- the colour mikado – and if you don’t know what colour that is, you’ll have to look it up!
Go to my Clever Competitions page here for all the details, rules and information.
The deadline date is Friday 23rd March, so pick up that paper and pen and get ready…get set…WOOF!
A wonderful morning at Diocesan Girls Junior School
December 14, 2017 at 7:21 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Story Readings, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, Diocesan Girls Junior School, Growhouse, How to Become a Great Writer, Storm Whale
Many thanks to my hosts, teacher Rachel Yu (above) and PTA parent Hynn Ming Lau, for inviting me to talk to the lovely young ladies of Grade One to Three at Diocesan Girls Junior School in Hong Kong yesterday. First I read the girls my beautiful new story Storm Whale, which was followed by dozens of eager questions about whales, some of which I had to admit were so tricky that I could not answer them! Then I gave the girls my Top 12 Tips to Become Great Writers in the Digital Age – and I was so impressed by their focus and understanding of this very topical and important subject! I’m quite sure that they will be strictly limiting their time on digital screens and greatly increasing their time spent reading books from now on! I look forward to receiving lots of DGJS story entries in my next Clever Competition! Thank you to my old friend Matt Steele of Growhouse for organising the event and co-ordinating the fabulous book sales!
I’m having a whale of a time judging your haikus – please bear with me!
October 5, 2017 at 8:43 am | Posted in Poetry competitions for children | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, Haikus for kids, Poetry competition, Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition
Hello all you fabulous poets out there who entered my Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition! There were entries from 15 schools from 9 different cities in 6 different countries around the world – Australia, Hong Kong, India, China, Singapore and the United States! So I’m judging as quickly as I can – but you’ll have to bear with me! And I’m having a WHALE of a time – your entries are fabulous!
Just 11 days left in my Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition!
September 19, 2017 at 12:51 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Storm Whale | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competitions, Storm Whale, Wonderful Whale Haiku Competition
Detail from Storm Whale by Sarah Brennan and Jane Tanner, Allen and Unwin, 2017
A big HELLOOO to the wonderful writers who’ve submitted their entries into my Wonderful Whale Haiku competition! We’ve had entries so far from students in 9 different schools in Adelaide, Brisbane, Chicago, Hong Kong, Kolkata, Shanghai and Singapore! But there’s still 11 days to go! If you love whales, and haikus, and haven’t entered my competition yet, make sure you go straight to my Clever Competitions page above for all the details! I can’t wait to read your entry!
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