About

The Red Dot student's choice book awards are an initiative of the International School Libraries (ISLN) in Singapore. The annual event started in 2009.

All school libraries in Singapore -- and the region -- are welcome to participate.

Books -- in four age-based categories, with eight titles in each -- are announced in June.

Voting takes place between March and May There is an overall winner for Singapore as well as individual winners within each school.

A Readers Cup competition based on a subset of these shortlists is held in May.

The Red Dot categories are roughly based on readers, rather than book formats or school divisions. (NB: It is up to every librarian to determine which books are right for which classes in your school to read.)

  • Early Years (ages 3-7) -- formerly Picture Books

  • Younger Readers (ages 7-10) -- formerly Junior) -- (where Captain Underpants and Geronimo Stilton are the assumed reading level)

  • Older Readers (ages 10-14) -- formerly Middle) -- (where Inkheart and The Lightning Thief are the assumed reading level)

  • Mature Readers (ages 14-adult) -- (formerly Senior) -- (where Twilight and The Book Thief are the assumed reading level)

Shortlist titles are chosen by a committee of teacher-librarians from recent children's literature (first published in English within the past four years), with the goal of offering a range of books from around the world.

Criteria in choosing books:

    • Mix of genres, e.g., fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic format

    • Balance of boy/girl main characters

    • Balance of nationalities

    • Published (in English) within the last 4 years (i.e., for the year 2015-2016, books published in 2012, 2013, 2014, or 2015)

    • The shortlists will consist of 8 books at each level

    • Preferably only #1 if in a series

  • Preferably no repeat of an author from previous years

  • Preferably books that encourage Text-Text, Text-Self, and/or Text-World connections for students (i.e., books worth talking about)

Bibliographic details can be found via the GoodReads lists.

For more information, contact ISLN at librarynetwork@gmail.com

See also this blog post by Katie Day about how the Red Dot Awards were started.