Story Time : Searching for Skye (02/02/2013)
| Venue | ： | Causeway Bay Book Centre, 9 Yee Wo St., Causeway Bay, H.K. |
| Speaker | ： | Mrs. Gail Clarke |
| Host | ： | Ms. Christa Tam |
Review
It's not often that birds appear as the main characters in storybooks (unlike bears or rabbits and I expect you can think of lots of other animals) But Gail Clarke's first book, Patrick's Birthday Message, is all about an African grey parrot and her second book, Searching For Skye, an arctic tern. Both centering on migration, the stories provide great opportunities for young readers to learn about their fascinating journeys in a fun way. Mrs. Clarke recounted both stories to our members on February 2nd.
Mrs. Clarke was amazed by the phenomenon of migration after she retired to Italy. where the winters are freezing compared to those she had been used to here in Hong Kong. So she decided to write the story of how Patrick the parrot delivered his birthday message to his Great Grandpa Gilbert in Australia for his 100th birthday, with the help of the migrating swallows, whales and dolphins.
Using a hand puppet of Grandpa Gilbert, Mrs. Clarke (a former teacher with nearly 30 years' experience), engaged the crowd with her lively cadence and expression. The children especially loved following her actions of imitating a parrot
Aside from all the fun our young audience also enjoyed learning many interesting facts in Searching For Skye about Skye, an fledgling arctic tern who got lost just before the tern family started their annual migration. We all learned so much about migration and marveled at the distances covered by these birds on their sometimes-dangerous migration from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Everyone was stunned to hear that throughout the terns' lives, they fly more than three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon! They were also happy to hear that Skye was finally reunited with her family.
Thank you, Gail, for the lovely stories!
Anyone who wants to ask Mrs. Clarke about her stories or tell her about migrating animals, please contact her at gail@gailclarkeauthor.com.
Become a famous illustrator!
Cosmos the baby humpback whale wants to know all about the world and the creatures in it. He sets off to find polar bears and penguins and has many exciting adventures along the way! To illustrate her 3rd book, Cosmos the Curious Whale, Gail Clarke invites all primary school students to draw and color a tropical fish. More than 300 of the most original and colorful entries will be included in the book! The young artists whose pictures are chosen will receive a printed certificate and will be acknowledge on the inside book cover and in Gail’s brand-new website www.gailclarkeauthor.com.
The Competition
The Illustration Competition is open to all primary school students (Y1 to Y4). Participants are invited to draw ONE colorful tropical fish on an A4 sheet using any medium they like: color pencil, water color, pastels etc
How to enter
Please email directly your artwork in a jpeg format to gail@gailclarkeauthor.com (maximum size 1MB, A4 size and please make sure to mention your first and last name, your age, your email and mailing address as well as the name of your school and country).
