Pin Yin Panda visits Kellett School for Book Day!
February 4, 2021 at 8:34 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
What a perfect Panda! Here is a photo of one of my lovely fans dressed up as Pin Yin Panda for Book Day at Kellett School in Hong Kong today! Isn’t she cute? Thanks so much mum Melanie for sending! And a big hello to all my fans at Kellett School – I hope you had a wonderful day!
Run Run Rat and The Chinese Calendar Tales reach Kiwi Land!
February 17, 2020 at 8:25 am | Posted in Bookshops, Buying my books, Hamilton, New Zealand | Leave a commentTags: Books for Kids, Megan Lindsay, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, The Tale of Run Run Rat
I’m tickled pink! All your favourite Chinese Calendar Tales beasties are now on sale in New Zealand at the fabulous Books for Kids, the best kids’ bookshop in Hamilton! Here is a photo of owner and manager Megan Lindsay with The Tale of Run Run Rat and The Tale of Pin Yin Panda! She tells me that the day after they arrived, three Run Run Rats ran out of the door with grateful customers! Go Run Run Rat!!
A fabulous visit to the Grade 3s at Canadian International School!
January 22, 2020 at 1:52 pm | Posted in Canadian International School Hong Kong, Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year, Hong Kong Schools | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese Zodiac, Books about Lord Buddha's Race, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, The Year of the Rat
A big HELLO to the fabulous Grade 3s at Canadian International School, who I visited on Monday! They’re currently learning about how culture is reflected through story-telling, so a funny story reading of The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, which retells the ancient Chinese legend of Lord Buddha’s Race and how the 12 animals got into the Chinese Zodiac, was just the ticket! After the story reading we had a terrific Q and A session where we discussed the real reason why pandas aren’t in the Chinese Zodiac, as well as why all the other animals are! Many thanks to teacher-librarian Colleen Williams (below) for hosting me!
Phew!! We’ve just packed all the boxed sets!
April 25, 2019 at 11:12 am | Posted in Boxed Set, Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales, Online Sales | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese history for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac, Boxed Set, children's gift ideas, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
HOORAY! My lovely office manager Shilpa Patel and I have just finished hand-boxing all our beautiful sets of The Chinese Calendar Tales! It’s been a labour of love to get the right books packed, so that the fabulous red dragon logo sits just right on the spines!
So now all you have to do is click here to purchase your very own boxed set of all 12 Chinese Calendar Tales plus The Tale of Pin Yin Panda!
It’s our best online seller!
And it makes a FANTASTIC gift for birthdays, primary school graduation gifts and other happy celebrations!
Two wonderful days at St Margaret’s Anglican School in Brisbane!
March 6, 2019 at 11:52 am | Posted in Brisbane schools, St Margaret's Anglican School Brisbane, Story Readings, Writing competitions for kids, writing workshops for children | Leave a commentTags: St Margaret's Anglican Girls' School, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
What a lovely two days I’ve just had with the gorgeous girls (and some boys) and teachers of St Margaret’s Primary and Pre-Prep this week! I met everyone from the cute little Pre-Preps to the savvy Grade 6s, and we had everything from story-readings of my Chinese Calendar Tales (The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda and The Tale of Ping Pong Pig) with all their juicy Chinese history and folklore thrown in, to workshops and talks about How to Write a Riveting Story, How to Become a Great Writer in the Digital Age, Books are a Brain’s Best Friend, and History is Geography! I even spoke at a big assembly of the Grade 4s to 6s about How I Became an Author and Publisher – including all the life-skills I learned along the way! Then at school pickup time I met some lovely parents when they purchased my books!
Thank you, everybody, for making me feel so welcome and for engaging so intently in all the sessions! It was a treat to work with you all! And do make sure that you click on my Clever Competitions link here for details of my latest writing competition for primary school kids – I hope to see lots of fabulous entries from the St Margaret’s girls!
Finally, warmest thanks to some very special staff members who looked after me so kindly throughout: Primary Principal Angela Drysdale (above and below centre), Head of Planning and Organisation – Primary Ms Mary Surtees (above and below left); librarian Mrs Donna Jackson (to my second left above) and Administration Assistant Miss Elizabeth Hook (to my far left above). I had so much fun spending time with you all!
More photos to come! In the meantime, meet the dragon mascot of St Margaret’s – in tile above and in textile below!
A fabulous Monday at Victoria Shanghai Academy
January 23, 2019 at 7:52 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Victoria Shanghai Academy | Leave a commentTags: The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
Ping Pong Pig and my other Chinese Calendar Tales characters had a busy visit on Monday to Victoria Shanghai Academy in Aberdeen! After the Year 2s heard The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, showing a very impressive knowledge of the Chinese Zodiac, the Year 3s, 4s and 5s heard my new Tale of Ping Pong Pig! We had a lot of fun! Warm thanks to my lovely host Judi Taylor, a lovely fellow Aussie and head of Digital and Information Literacy. More photos to come!
Ping Pong Pig visits the brand new Malvern College Hong Kong!
January 18, 2019 at 10:31 am | Posted in Chinese New Year, Hong Kong Schools, Malvern College Hong Kong, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
On Tuesday this week, I was honoured to be the very first author to visit Hong Kong’s brand new Malvern College HK, set by the Science Park just by Tolo Harbour and Tai Po! It’s a beautiful school, with lots of space and light, which opened in September last year, and it already has hundreds of very keen students! The Prep 1s met my lonely dragon in The Tale of Chester Choi; the Prep 2s met cheeky Pin Yin Panda and all the animals of the Chinese Zodiac in The Tale of Ping Pong Panda, and the Prep 3s to 6s all met my latest addition to the Chinese Calendar Tales, my plump and pretty Ping Pong Pig! It was a fabulous day! Thanks so much to my wonderful hosts Ryan Dempsey, head of Library, and deputy librarian Karen Potts, pictured in the library above!
A memorable visit to QSI Zhuhai!
September 29, 2018 at 11:00 am | Posted in QSI Zhuhai, Story Readings, workshops, Zhuhai schools | Leave a commentTags: Chinese history, Chinese Zodiac, How to Become a Great Writer, How to Create Bookworms in the Digital Age, How to Publish a Picture Book, Introduction to Poetry Workshop, Nailing the Narrative Curve, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
Thank you so much to fabulous primary school teacher Heather Domenico, for hosting me for two very busy days at QSI in Zhuhai on Wednesday and Thursday this last week! We had sessions for absolutely everyone from ages 2 to 18, as well as an after-school talk to the mums and dads!
The littlest ones met my crew of stuffed toys in a funny re-enactment of Lord Buddha’s Race – and proved they were extremely good at counting up to 12!
The 5 to 6 year olds proved they were old hands at the Chinese Zodiac when I read them The Tale of Pin Yin Panda while the 7 to 8 year olds became fearsome pirates as they heard The Tale of Desmond Dog!
The 9 to 11 year olds learned all about How to Publish A Picture Book from Brilliant Idea to Final Product and even got a sneek peak at my final Chinese Calendar Tale for the Year of the Pig, which is currently in production!
After school on Wednesday, I talked to a lovely group of parents about How to Create Bookworms in the Digital Age. Here are just a few of them, with their kids!
And finally, the 12 to 18 year olds and I spent almost the whole of Thursday together, in three different workshops: How to Become a Good Writer, An Introduction to Poetry and, finally, Nailing the Narrative Curve, where we had tremendous fun writing a story plan for the tragic story of three teenagers caught in a love triangle…in a paradise entered through a school locker portal!
And in between I met some fabulous kids, parents and teachers when I signed the books they bought from my wonderful distributor, Aaron Tearne at Obido Educational Services! If anyone missed out on buying a book, you can still do so, with some great discounts for multiple purchases here!
More photos to come!
A fun morning at FSSA in Yau Tong!
April 18, 2018 at 2:14 pm | Posted in Fukien Secondary School Affiliated, Hong Kong Schools, Story Readings, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Stories about Chinese Zodiac characters, Stories about dogs, Stories about pandas, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Desmond Dog, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
Many thanks to Head of English and Deputy Principal Nicolas Delbos (with me above right) and Sunny Ding (above left) for hosting me yesterday at Fukien Secondary School Affiliated Primary School for a morning of fun story readings with all the kids from Primary One to Primary Six! The P1 to P3 kids met my vain but loveable Pin Yin Panda as we explored the Legend of Lord Buddha’s Race and how all the animals got into the Chinese Zodiac in The Tale of Pin Yin Panda, while the P4 to P6s pretended to be fabulously fearsome pirates as I read them this year’s Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Desmond Dog! We had a lot of fun!
A touching gift from an old(ish) fan!
February 11, 2018 at 5:56 pm | Posted in Book launches, Canadian International School Hong Kong, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese Zodiac, Books about pandas, Books2Eat contest, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda
I was so very touched yesterday when the Fox family attended my launch yesterday, and Jess, who is now a very glam teenager (pictured above right some 6 years ago and below left) presented me with the lovely thank you note on the left! Jess and her sisters Liliana and Emerson had made a Pin Yin Panda cake from The Tale of Pin Yin Panda for the Books2Eat contest at Canadian International School way back in 2012, and their mum sent me their cute photo. All three (plus mum) were out in force to support the launch yesterday – the sisters are here below! We all teared up when Jess gave me her gorgeous note! Thanks Jess! Fans like you make my life very happy!
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