We are excited to be hosting our first author for the 2013-2014 school year, Sarah Brennan, on Monday October 28th. Sarah will be presenting to students from Pre-K-4th grade in our Elementary Library and her books will be on sale all of next week if you’d like to buy one and have it signed by her. Sarah has visited Shanghai many times and you may have been lucky enough to see her at the Shanghai Literary Festival or even here at SAS a couple of times. She has a large and joyful personality and gives 110% to all of her presentations, leaving audiences inspired. I am always impressed listening to Sarah and believe our students benefit from her real-life learning experiences and the attention to detail she puts in to explaining the writing process.

Here are many details from Sarah that outline her career in a nutshell, but I know you’ll love to look at her fantastic website where she regularly updates her blog and also offers many opportunities for YOU to write for her… competitions aplenty here. Sarah Brennan is the Hong Kong-based international author and publisher of the best-selling Chinese Calendar Tales (The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Tale of Oswald Ox, The Tale of Temujin, The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda and her latest title The Tale of Sybil Snake) as well as the hugely popular Dirty Story series. She is also author of the humorous parenting advice manual Dummies for Mummies published by Haven Books. A featured author in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing International Literary Festivals since 2004, Sarah conducts regular reading tours, workshops and weeks in residence in schools in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Australia and the UK. Her books are now also distributed in the United States and Canada. As it is now the year of the Snake in the Chinese Calendar, we will have many Sybil Snake books on sale for 80 rmb each.

Sarah’s particular mission is to bring Chinese culture, history and landscape to young English speakers everywhere through the medium of humour, verse and funny illustrations, while at the same time giving children living in East Asia stories that relate to their own heritage. She also believes passionately in rich vocabulary and intelligent text for primary school children: “dumbing down” is her particular bête noir! As a result, her books can be read on many levels and are popular among children aged as young as 5 and as old as 12. The great Australian author Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s List) has described Sarah’s work as “a meeting between traditional Asian narratives and the universal taste of children for graphic stories. The tale-telling gifts shown in these books, along with the exuberance of the language and rhymes, make them unique in children’s literature”. All of Sarah’s books are wickedly illustrated by Hong Kong’s much-loved cartoonist from the South China Morning Post, Harry Harrison. Sarah lives in Hong Kong with her French husband, two daughters and an opinionated cocker spaniel. Visit Sarah’s funny and fabulous website at www.sarah-brennan.com and blog at www.sarahbrennanblog.wordpress.com!