The Results are out in my Tale of a Rogue Rabbit writing competition!

May 10, 2023 at 7:08 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions | Leave a comment
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HOORAY! The results in my Tale of a Rogue Rabbit writing competition are out!!

Thank you all so much for your fabulous entries into my latest Clever Competition, The Tale of a Rogue Rabbit! I’ve had so much fun reading them, and chuckling at the antics of your cheeky bunnies and sometimes even naughtier Amur hedgehogs whilst sparing a thought for all your sad princesses! Not to mention singing along with those watermelons!!

There were two notable “firsts” in this competition!

  • The first story written completely in rhyming verse!
  • The first word I had to look up in the dictionary because I’d never heard of it before!

And there was a lot of humour, which is always fun to come across, especially when judging!

You can read all the wonderful winning entries on my Clever Competition page right away! Just click on this link!

Have patience, my friends!

May 7, 2023 at 3:03 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions | Leave a comment
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The Rabbit in the Moon, from The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit, illustration by Harry Harrison

It’s been a week since the deadline of Tale of a Rogue Rabbit story competition and I know, I know, you’re impatient to see the results! I’m having such fun reading your entries, and the results are cooking!! I promise it won’t be long now! Hang in there!!

Just 2 weeks left to submit your Tale of a Rogue Rabbit!

April 15, 2023 at 4:53 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | 1 Comment
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If you haven’t yet submitted your entry for my Tale of a Rogue Rabbit Writing Competition you’d better get hopping! You can find out all the information you need here. I can’t wait to read your entry!

And in the meantime, one of our fabulous entrants is so impatient to find out the winners that she wrote a special poem about it! I thought it was so clever, I had to let you all see it! Thank you Ira Nair for this poem, which made me laugh out loud!

Tick tock

    Waiting and waiting.

    I look out the window,

    I peer through the door.

    I stare at my phone,

    My patience is no more.

    I play with my sister,

    I play with my friends.

    I play with my family,

    Until the deadline ends.

    Waiting and waiting.

    My stomach excited,

    My heart beating fast.

    My head going wild,

    For the results- at last.

    My eyes getting tired,

    My mind feeling bored.

    I’m getting impatient,

    I can’t wait no more.

    Waiting and waiting.

    While I might be tired,

    While this isn’t fun.

    While my patience is low,

    I shall wait till the deadline is done.

    Patience is crucial,

    I shall have to wait.

    Patience is crucial,

    Even when some are late.

    Waiting and waiting.

    I check my emails once,

    And check them once more.

    Looking out the window,

    Peering out the door.

    No need to be impatient,

    Keep steady- just wait.

    Watch the clock tick,

    Until the ending date.

    Waiting and waiting.

By Ira Nair

Just 4 days left to the Clever Competition deadline!

April 20, 2022 at 4:01 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions | Leave a comment
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There are just 4 days left till the deadline for my Terrific Tiger Tale writing competition! So if you haven’t sent your entry in yet, you need to get rampaging, like my Temujin! You can find all the details on my Clever Competition page here! I can’t wait to read your story!

That was a BUSY week!

March 6, 2022 at 12:43 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, mainland China schools | Leave a comment
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This week I had a fabulous time Zoom-visiting schools in Hong Kong and mainland China in the early hours of the morning from here in France!

On Tuesday, I visited the Year 4 students at Yew Chung International School in Chongqing with my writing workshop How to Write a Riveting Story! The kids used my story planner as I explained the importance of characters, setting and plot sequence, and by the end of the session had some fantastic story plans ready to go for their first draft! I can’t wait to see the results! Thanks to my lovely host, English co-ordinator Becca Roden for inviting me!

On Wednesday I visited the Kindies at Sias International School of Zhengdong New District, Zhengzhou to introduce them to my Chinese Calendar Tales with a fun reading of The Tale of Chester Choi, with my toy dragon Billy Boy looking on, then on Friday I visited the whole of primary school during assembly, where I talked all about How I became an Author and the crucial importance of reading books in the digital age, following which they roared like tigers and screamed like spoiled princesses while I read them this year’s Calendar Tale, The Tale of Temujin! Many thanks to librarian and media specialist Elizabeth Baker and tech wizard Tom Kerrigan for making the visit possible!

The fabulous and focussed Year 5s at Stamford American School Hong Kong

Meanwhile on Thursday, I finished my four sessions with my old friends at Stamford American School Hong Kong with a visit to 100 fabulous Year 5s in their homes, where I explained all the fabulous history and real-life mystery behind The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah (A Mystery in Hong Kong)! Thank you Aric Cherry for being such a fun host, and as ever, to Lisa Olinski for all the fantastic organisation!

Session 3 last week with the Grade 3s at SASHK

And today, I slept in…for a long, long time :)!

It was a real pleasure to be working with such enthusiastic and focused students! I look forward to seeing lots of entries from you in my latest Clever Competition, A Terrific Tiger Tale!

It’s time for a writing competition about TIGERS!

February 2, 2022 at 6:40 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions | Leave a comment
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From The Tale of Temujin, written by me and illustrated by Harry Harrison

It’s a brand new Year of the Tiger, and what better way to celebrate than a story writing competition for primary school aged kids around the world! So if you’re (a) a kid, (b) primary school-aged, (c) living somewhere on Planet Earth and (d) someone who loves writing stories, this competition is the one for you!

This time, your story must include:

  • a ferocious tiger
  • a Chinese princess
  • a wise silkworm
  • an inquisitive hawfinch (and if you don’t know what that is, you’ll have to look it up!)
  • a magical pepper grinder
  • a terrible famine
  • the colour aureolin (and if you don’t know what that is, you’ll have to look it up as well!)

Now if the first four characters sound a lot like the characters in The Tale of Temujin, you’d be right! But your story must be completely different to my story, thank you very much!!

You can start right now, and the deadline is Sunday 23rd April. So that gives you a whole ten weeks to get your stories in! Go to my Clever Competitions page right away to find out all the details!

The Results are out in The Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition!

April 23, 2021 at 11:31 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | 1 Comment
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From The Tale of Oswald Ox illustrated by Harry Harrison

Hooray! At last the results are out in my Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition! Thank you so much for your patience! It was horribly difficult to judge, with a fabulous 44 entries from 19 schools in 6 cities around the world: Brisbane, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Taiwan and Ely in the United Kingdom!

Congratulations to everyone who entered. And special congratulations to the Top Six in each of the Year 1 to 3 and Year 4 to 6 Categories, as well as some fabulous Honourable Mentions and Special Mentions!

Click on my Clever Competitions page right away to read the fantastic winning entries!

Places were as follows:

Year 1 to 3 Category

FIRST PLACE: Sophia Dennison, Year 3, French International School Hong Kong, 8 years old

SECOND PLACE: Luke Jackson, Year 3, Arden Anglican School, NSW, Australia, 8 years old

THIRD PLACE: Seraphina Zhuang, Year 3, Arden Anglican School, NSW, Australia 8 years old

FOURTH PLACE; Lillian Xue, Year 3, Arden Anglican School, NSW, Australia, 8 years old

FIFTH PLACE: Muyao Zhang, Year 3, Arden Anglican School, NSW, Australia, 8 years old

SIXTH PLACE: Freya Bainbridge, Year 3, Shrewsbury International School Hong Kong, 8 years old

HONOURABLE MENTION: Ivan He, Grade 3, Stamford American School Hong Kong, 8 years old

SPECIAL MENTIONS:

Leona Huang, Year 1, Arden Anglican School, NSW, Australia, 6 years old

Louise Pan, Year 1, Arden Anglican School, NSW, Australia, 6 years old

Year 4 to 6 Category

FIRST PLACE: James Bruser Zarin, Year 5, Shrewsbury International School Hong Kong, 10 years old

SECOND PLACE: Reva Kamath, Year 4, Discovery College Hong Kong, 8 years old

THIRD PLACE: Therese Li, Year 4, Arden Anglican School, NSW, Australia, 8 years old

FOURTH PLACE: Akshadha Madan, Year 5, Shrewsbury International School Hong Kong, 9 years old

FIFTH PLACE: Renee Wong and Kate Chiu, Year 6, Renaissance College Hong Kong, both 11 years old

SIXTH PLACE: Tanvi Pati, Year 4, Renaissance College Hong Kong, 8 years old

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

Amira Datwani, Year 5, Renaissance College Hong Kong, 9 years old

Abigail Wright, Year 6, Oxley State School, Brisbane, Australia, 10 years old

Jake Jung, Year 5, Ermington Public School, Sydney, Australia, 10 years old

Just 5 days left for your Oxcellent Ox Tale!

March 23, 2021 at 5:32 pm | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a comment
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Illustration by Harry Harrison from The Tale of Oswald Ox

Moooo!

Oswald Ox would like to remind you that you have just 5 days left to get your entries in to the Oxcellent Ox Tale story writing competition! The competition is open to primary school students anywhere in the world! Click on my Clever Competition page right away to find out all about it!

Squawk! Just 16 days left in my Oxcellent Ox Tale writing competition!

March 12, 2021 at 11:20 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions | Leave a comment
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From The Tale of Oswald Ox, illustrated by Harry Harrison

The rooster from my The Tale of Oswald Ox is raising a loud alarm! You’ve got just 16 days left to get in your entry in my Oxcellent Ox Tale writing competition for primary school aged kids! So if you haven’t started writing your story, you’d better get started this weekend! You can find all the details about the competition here!

Just 26 days to get your entries into the Oxcellent Ox Tale Competition!

March 2, 2021 at 12:14 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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From The Tale of Oswald Ox, illustration by Harry Harrison

The rooster from Oswald Ox’s farm is sounding the alarm! You’ve got just 26 DAYS left to get your entry into my An Oxcellent Ox Tale writing competition, with fabulous prizes including a FREE author visit to your school! Go to my Clever Competition page right away for all the details (you’ll need to scroll down a little). I can’t wait to read your entry!

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