Reading ahead to next year's awards...

Post date: Mar 20, 2011 10:40:43 AM

NOMINATIONS for titles to go on the shortlist for 2012-2013 are always welcome. Read here to learn how to add books to our GoodReads shelf. (Or just email librarynetwork@gmail.com and put "RED DOT 2012-2013 NOMINATION" in the Subject line. Ask your students if they have any books to recommend (though do remember they must be published in the last four years).

READING AHEAD.... We are starting a "Hot for the Red Dots" children's literature discussion group for adults (a revival of sorts of one we used to do a couple of years ago - that got de-railed by Hands on Literacy activity).

The goal will be to read and discuss books that would fall into the Red Dot categories -- i.e., published in the last four years, from a range of countries, a balance of male/female protagonists, and some non-fiction as well as fiction.

• • First meeting: Monday, April 26th - 7:00 pm start - location to be determined.

  • Second meeting: Thursday, May 26th - 7:00 pm start - location to be determined

We want to publish a summer reading list (consider it a "long-list" of possibilities) for each of the categories.... for adults and children to read as they will. (We grown-ups might even manage a blog as a focus for our comments.) Kids' opinions on the books read over the summer will be solicited by teacher-librarians and the Red Dot committee in September, as the time comes to set the short-lists for 2012-2013.

(If it's one thing we've learned in the past two cycles of this award, it's that you can never start too early -- and we have chosen badly, and put books in the wrong category -- simply because we didn't have enough books on the long-list that we were fully knowledgeable about -- which came down to not enough time....)

If you want to join this new book group or be on the Red Dot committee next year, please let Katie Day (kda@uwcsea.edu.sg) know. All are welcome.