Image source: http://hkgoldendragonawards.org/

The results of the first ever Golden Dragon Book Awards, Hong Kong's very own international book award program have just been released. The program, which was launched in February this year,  consists of four different categories with eight titles short listed for each category: Young Readers, Middle Readers, Older Readers and Mature Readers. Our EC students could read and vote for their favourite title in the Young Readers Division; our UP students talked about and voted for their favourite title from the Middle Reader Division; and our Secondary School students had the opportunity to read and vote for books in the Older Readers and Mature Readers Divisions. While each and every one of the shortlisted books was a winner for us, here the titles that received the most votes from young readers around Hong Kong. 

Congratulations to the authors and their wonderful stories - and a big THANK YOU to the organising committee and our enthusiastic readers!

We are just a few days away from our annual Literacy Week which begins Monday March 2. We are all looking forward to a special week of celebrations around literacy under the theme “Share your memory, be the story.” Inspired by a project of Singapore’s National Library, we want to collect and share in various ways memories connected to books and reading. Each time you read a story alone or with others, you create your own story from the experience and memory. This is what we want to make visible and celebrate during the week.

Here is an outline of the week:

Monday - Let the celebrations begin - and meet an author!
PK1, PK2 and K students will meet with the author Matthew Cooper.

Tuesday - Get comfy and read all day aka Pajama Day
Students can come to school in their pajamas. We will have two continuous reading chairs set up, in which we will have readers throughout the day.

Wednesday - World Read Aloud Day
We will celebrate WRAD with a million of other people around the world to raise awareness around the many people who are not able to read. G5 will Skype with author Rob Buyea.

Thursday - Meet the Author Day
G1-5 students meet with the author Lenore Look.

Friday - Book Character Day 
Students are invited to come to school dressed up as a favourite book character. We will have a special assembly with a book character parade and the launching of our annual read-a-thon in support of Room to Read. Students in K-5 will participate in multiage literacy activities.

In addition, our students will enjoy D.E.A.R. time (Drop Everything And Read) every day and participate in the Golden Dragon Book Awards. Stay tuned as we will provide daily updates from the events through this blog.

We introduced the award program and shared some of the books with our students during this past week. Some books, as I pulled them out of the box, received loud cheers of excitement especially among our Upper Primary students (The Days The Crayons Quit, Alvin Ho, Tom Gates and Fortunately the Milk). Everyone wanted to get to hear one of the stories or at least a chapter from one of the books right away. 

We also brainstormed what makes a good book for us. Here are some of the things our EC and UP students mentioned:

With our students in Upper Primary I also shared excerpts from this interview with Debbie Alvarez aka the Styling Librarian to show students how experts go about when they review and evaluate books. Mrs. Alvarez shared some advice that will surely help our students as they read, talk about and vote for their favourite title.

[Image with kind permission by Debbie Alvarez]


Welcome to the HKA Primary Library blog, Mrs. Alvarez, and thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions that will help our students as they participate in the first Hong Kong Golden Dragon Book Awards.

Hi Ms. Tanja, happy to join in the conversation!

Could you please tell us a bit about your experience with reviewing books and participating in the selection process of book/literary awards?

I've participated in reviewing books for over 15 years. First I reviewed books and shared my thoughts only in my classroom and library. Then I joined a committee in Oregon and we created Oregon Battle of the Books. We read hundreds of books every year and chose 16 for three divisions. That was a lot of books to read. Our goal is to make sure at least two people judge each book. Around three years ago I officially began blogging and reviewing books and many publishing companies allow me to read books before they are released to the public, this is very exciting because I get an early glimpse at books and can share my thoughts with the publisher and my blog readers about the new book treasures. The toughest part of the book selection process, especially for our new Golden Dragon Book Awards, has been to cut back and eliminate titles. The committee is made up of many people who all are reading and judging the books. We work hard to choose a balanced selection of titles.

What are some of the criteria reviewers and committee members and judges of book/literary award programs are looking for?

We are looking for a strong plot that pulls us through the book. Also, we appreciate characters that make us want to know more about them and experience life with them. Picture books should really be able to be opened, looked through and have the illustrations tell the story without reading the text initially. Finally, we look for books that touch our hearts either through humor, realistic situations, fantasy adventures, graphic novel adventures, and more. There are other things we look for such as balance of books in our selections for girls and boys, different genres, and multicultural selections as well.

What advice do you have for us as we read, talk about and vote for the Golden Dragon Book Awards?

Take your time and try to read as many of the titles in your division as possible. When you read each book, slow down and discuss if the story had a strong plot, if you appreciated the characters and could understand what they were experiencing, and above all please listen to your instincts and identify which book calls out to you above all the other books. There's a book for every person out there and we won't all agree but we can celebrate books in this special way.

Thank you for sharing your time and expertise with us.

My pleasure. Happy reading!

Over the next three school weeks (including Literacy Week), our students will read as many of the books as possible, have conversations in their classes about the books, record their comments in our GDA reader's journal and then decide which book to give their votes to. Voting for the GDA will close on midnight of March 6 and in Primary, we will submit these votes on behalf of our students. We are excited about being part of the Golden Dragon Book Awards, about discovering new books (and revisiting some favourites by the same authors) and celebrating their wonderful stories and art work.