Well done Daisy!
June 22, 2019 at 1:35 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Japanese International School, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition
On Wednesday afternoon, I had the great pleasure of presenting Daisy Palmer, winner of the Grade 4 to 6 Category of the Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, with her First Place prize of a Boxed Set of the Chinese Calendar Tales! Here we are at the assembly at Japanese International School in Hong Kong, with, from left to right, librarian Cath Wan, Principal Simon Walton, Daisy’s mum Claire, and head of Student Support, Glenda Baillie. Thank you Simon for inviting me – it was a real honour!
The results are out in The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition!
June 15, 2019 at 4:10 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition
At last! The results in my Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition are out! Thank you all for your kindness and understanding over the last few weeks – it’s been a difficult time for me on the domestic front, which has caused some delay in getting all your stories read and marked on my special anonymous marking spreadsheet! But it’s also been a huge pleasure, and great fun, for me to read your stories! It was obvious that you all made a huge effort, and the overall standard was very high.
Thank you, each and every one of you, for your fantastic efforts and do make sure you enter my next Clever Competition!
There were a total of 44 entries from 12 fabulous schools in Beijing, Chicago, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Shanghai and Sydney. Special congratulations to First Place winners Saskia McDonald (Grade One to Three Category) and Daisy Palmer (Grade Four to Six Category) who each receive a Boxed Set of the Chinese Calendar Tales! Congratulations also to the Second and Third Place winners who will receive a signed copy of one of the Chinese Calendar Tales of their choice!
To see the winning entries, just click here on my Clever Competitions page. And have fun reading the stories!
I’ll be posting details of my next Clever Competition when you all get back from holidays in September! Just scroll down to the link at the right hand side to subscribe to this blog, or to my newsletter to find out as soon as the details are posted!
Time’s Up! And the judging begins…
May 18, 2019 at 1:01 pm | Posted in Beijing Schools, Chicago schools, Clever Competitions, Hong Kong Schools, Melbourne schools, Shanghai schools, Sydney schools | Leave a commentTags: Primary School writing competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, Writing Competitions for Kids
Time’s up in my Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, and it’s time to start judging your fabulous entries! I’ve had over 50 magnificent entries from schools in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Melbourne, Sydney and Chicago – so it might take me a little bit of time!
So please be patient, all you clever writers out there, and Ping Pong Pig and I will be singing out the results as soon as we can!
A Writing Workshop at St Clare’s Primary School!
May 9, 2019 at 10:31 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, St Clare's Primary School, Writing competitions for kids, writing workshops for children | Leave a commentTags: How to Write a Riveting Story, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions
Here are the fabulous girls of Grades 4 to 6 at St Clare’s Primary School in Sai Ying Pun in Hong Kong preparing to contribute their clever ideas in my How to Write a Riveting Story Workshop on Tuesday this week! They had some fantastic ideas for stories! They learned all about the vital elements in a story, and how to make a story plan that makes a perfect skeleton story. I also explained some of the current science about the extraordinary importance of reading for leisure and pleasure if you want to have a creative and successful life – and the very real problems for the brain if you spend your spare time on digital screens, especially social media and digital games. Thank you to lovely English Panel Head, Ms. Sandy (with me below right), and to School Principal Elsa Hui (below left), for inviting me. The girls were a delight and I look forward to working with them again! And, of course, to their entries in my Clever Competition!
Ping Pong Pig finds seven more days for entries in my Clever Competition!
May 3, 2019 at 9:32 am | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
Ping Pong Pig has been begging me to give everybody an extension in my latest Clever Competition. Finally, she’s dived into her feed bucket and found seven extra days hiding, right at the bottom!
So, courtesy of Ping Pong, the new deadline for my Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition is extended to midnight EST on Friday 17th May!
That means that you now have 14 days to get your entries in – and with the fabulous first prize of a Boxed Set of the Chinese Calendar Tales, you’d better get going!
All the rules and special ingredients are here, so click on the link and start writing! I can’t wait to read your entries!
It’s Book Week at DBIS!
May 2, 2019 at 6:56 pm | Posted in Discovery Bay International School, Hong Kong Schools, Writing competitions for kids | 1 CommentTags: Battle of the Books, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
This week is Book Week at Discovery Bay International School, and I was honoured to be part of their celebrations today! The whole of primary school from Year 1 to Year 6 met my latest and last Chinese Calendar Tales character, the feisty Ping Pong Pig, not to mention the mighty Yongle Emperor and his crafty Minister of Most Important Things, in three funny and fabulous story readings of The Tale of Ping Pong Pig. Then I spent a fun twenty minutes during the lunch hour with the DBIS Battle of the Books team, who had just come back from the Hong Kong Semi-Finals, where they placed a very impressive Second! Well done to the DBIS BOBS!
You can see me with Head of English, Mr Jonnie Haines’, Class 5JH, above, and below, with my lovely host, school librarian Melanie Foti.
And below, you can meet wonderful DBIS author and illustrator, Luka Van der Noord, creator of The Adventures of Sticko! He’s already written and printed eight books! Keep up the good work, Luka! You’ll be selling in bookstores soon!
Last but not least, a message to all you DBIS writers – I’ve decided to extend the deadline for my story competition for just one more week to give you all time to get your stories in! So the deadline will now be midnight on Friday 17th May 2019! Just click here to find out all the rules and special ingredients for your entry!
Eight weeks to go in my Clever Competition!
March 16, 2019 at 10:46 am | Posted in Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales, children's literacy, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Clever Competition, Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, Writing Competitions for Kids
Ping Pong would like to remind you that there are just eight weeks to go to get your story entries in to my Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition! Now you might think that’s a long time…but even if you don’t think pigs can fly, I can assure you that time does, especially when you’re having fun! And with a beautiful Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales on the table as first prize, you’d better get started! So take a look at the competition rules and ingredients here, and start planning your fabulous story today!
It’s time for a Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition!
February 17, 2019 at 1:14 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
It’s the Year of the Pig – and high time for another of my international story writing competitions for primary school aged kids!
Now we all know that Ping Pong Pig is a practically perfect pig – she’s kind and giving, she works very hard, and she likes to help people! She’s also a very good little actress, as she escapes the Minister of Most Important Things dressed in the disguise of all those professions Pig People are good at! Above all she loves stories about pigs! So in this new story competition, I need you to tell me an exciting adventure, a puzzling mystery…or even a touching romance about a Practically Perfect Pig!
Any child attending primary school, including home-schooled children of primary school age, anywhere in the world can enter! There will be two separate categories for Grades One to Three, and Grade Four to Six, so even the little ones can join in!
This time the First Prize in each of the two Categories will be ONE COMPLETE BOXED SET OF MY CHINESE CALENDAR TALES worth RRP HK$1299!!! Second and Third Place-Getters will each receive a signed copy of one Chinese Calendar Tale of their choice! And the TOP SIX entries in each Category will be published on my blog, which will make you a world famous writer right away!
All the Rules and Requirements are on my Clever Competition page here, so click the link right away and start writing! The deadline is FRIDAY 10TH MAY so get those trotters trotting!
The Results are out in my Perfect Pet Poem Competition!
November 18, 2018 at 4:36 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, poetry, Poetry competitions for children | Leave a commentTags: Perfect Pet Poem Competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Desmond Dog
Desmond Dog rescues a cat in The Tale of Desmond Dog! Illustration by Harry Harrison
Thank you all so much for your wonderful entries into my latest Clever Competition! And what a lovely time I’ve had reading about your Perfect Pets! There were 48 fabulous entries this time, from 15 different schools in 7 cities on 4 different continents! There were entries from Melbourne in Australia; from Shanghai and Zhuhai in mainland China; from Hong Kong; from Chicago and San Diego in the United States of America, and, for the first time, from Colombo in Sri Lanka! There were real pets, like cats, hamsters, pigs and a red panda! There were fantastical pets, like dragons, seahorns and snickerdoodles! Most were cute and cuddly, some were downright scary! But most of all, there were DOGS – to which, as a dog lover myself, I can only say of course!
Special congratulations to Hannah Thompson, of Grade 3, Methodist Ladies College, Melbourne, Australia, who won the Grade 1 to 3 Category in the competition, and Madeline Painter of Grade 6, South Middle School, Illinois, Chicago, USA, who won the Grade 4 to 6 Category. They each win a signed copy of one of my books sent to their school for presenation in assembly. Well done girls!
Go to my Clever Competitions Page right away to read all the fantastic place-winning entries!
The Princess is thinking…be patient my friends!
November 1, 2018 at 10:16 am | Posted in Clever Competitions, Poetry competitions for children, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Perfect Pet Poem Competition, Princess Precious, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Tale of Temujin
Illustration by Harry Harrison from The Tale of Temujin
Do not disturb! This Princess Precious is thinking! And she’s loving all the entries in the Perfect Pet Poem Competition! I’ll be announcing the results soon – but please be patient in the meantime! Remember…a watched pot never boils!!!
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