This is our last week of the school year 2016=17 and ahead of us is the long summer break, which provides many extra opportunities for reading, adventure and fun. Just as during the past years, we have put some reading suggestions and activities together for you, a catalogue of ideas to get you started. Don't worry, you don't have to do all the activities or read all of the books listed (but you can of course, if you want to ;) Just pick and choose what catches your interest and adapt it to best suit you and your family. 

Throughout the break, I will post reading recommendations and activities on this blog. Should you not have consistent Internet access, or should you wish to explore the themes for each week independently in the order that suits you/interests you and your family best, you can download it here.

In addition to these documents, we have set up several Padlets (a kind of online bulletin board) with more reading recommendations from us and from all of our students. These Padlets are a work in progress as all of us - students, parents, teachers, and librarians - can continue to add book recommendations throughout the summer. Adding to these Padlets is pretty simple as there is no need to sign in or sign up. Simply double click to activate a text box, type in your recommendation, done!
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You can access the Padlets below, through this link or via the Primary Portal page.

Happy Summer Reading!

The end of the school year is just three weeks away. It's been another exciting year in the library with lots of great books and stories, with authors and illustrators, reading, inquiring and learning. During the past week, I asked our students in K-G5 (PK1 students are still busy with their inquiry circles, PK2 students will do their reflections this coming week) to look back on the year and share something they learned, enjoyed, are proud of.

Our kindergarteners, first and second graders captured their reflections in pictures with the help of our iPads and the ComicBook app, which allows students also to add captions to their images. As I walked around observing our students and taking a few pictures, I noticed pretty quickly the big ideas that were being captured: choosing and checking out books (kindergartners were especially proud of having learned to use browsing sticks), author inquiries, inquiry circles, reading in various forms (alone, with a friend, or a shared read-aloud).By far most important seemed to our students showing themselves with a favorite book, which they had no trouble locating independently.

Our students in grades 3-5 had a closer look at their check out history from the second semester, to help them reflect specifically on where this year has taken them on their reading journey (and example of what this might have looked like is shown in the photo at the top of this post). For this purpose, I also handed out copies of their shelfies and reflections from the beginning of the year, and for grade 4 and 5 students also their check out history from semester one. My favorite part watching our students work on analysing their check out history, displaying the data in a bar graph, to then interpret the data and share observations, was listening to them chatting excitedly about the books on their lists, remembering favorites and recommending these. Moments like this always remind me what an amazing community of readers we are here at Hong Kong Academy.

I encourage you to ask your child about their reflections, about showing you their reflection and sharing with you some of their (reading, inquiring, learning) highlights of the year.

It was an exciting final of the 2017 Hong Kong Battle of the Books championships at Hong Kong International School yesterday, with the host team securing the trophy with a clear victory, answering all questions (their own as well as those missed by opposing teams) except one correctly. A phenomenal display of knowledge! Throughout the tournament, we got to see many perfect rounds - all questions answered correctly by the teams - speaking of the overall high standard of the competition. Not only was it obvious that the teams had come well prepared, you could sense that the books on this year's list were enjoyed and loved by our young readers from the way they responded to the questions as well as the reactions in the audience on hearing the titles of books.  

Our team gave us much reason to be proud of, amongst others they completed two perfect rounds. They never got discouraged by a challenging or missed question but completed every round in a focused manner.

Especially commendable was the team spirit our students showed throughout the competition, the way they conferred with each other before answering questions, the way they sent off and received back from the stage the teammates playing; there was so much encouragement, it was beautiful to witness. In addition, our students showed great sportsmanship, applauding and acknowledging the achievements of other teams, as well as being consistently attentive and respectful audience members.

We had wonderful support from our parents, who took time out of their busy schedules to come out to HKIS to see us compete. Many, many thanks for that - and for all your support throughout the year. We know that many of you have read some of the books as well, bought personal copies for your children and encouraged them to practise authors and titles and talking about the books - which all helped us to get to the finals.

One of my personal highlights of the competition was towards the end, just before the winning team was announced, as Ms. Robinson, the HKIS primary teacher librarian introduced next year's list of books by showing the video below. There was so much excitement as students recognised some already loved titles on the list while being intrigued by the covers of books they don't know yet. As I watched our students, I could see some huge smiles appear on faces and some excited chats about the books right after the video was shown. You could tell right away that our fourth graders on the team are ready to start reading books from the list (our fifth graders are able to join the Secondary team next year and will be reading the books from that list). Many of our readers told us on the busride back to HKA that they would continue with Battle of the Books next year - and we are looking forward to continue having them on the team as well as welcoming new students!

For the first time in HKA history, a Primary School team has reached the finals of the Hong Kong Battle of the Books competition by winning their semi-final at Shatin Junior School last Thursday! 

The semi-final of Group F with teams from Shatin Junior School, Harrow International School, Nord Anglia and HKA, kept us all on the edge of our seats throughout. It was so impressive to see the speed with which teams answered the questions, resulting in several perfect rounds (both teams answering each of their six questions correctly).

The competition was so close that two rounds of tie-breaker questions were needed to decide the winner. The team from Shatin Junior School and our team both fought so hard, it would have been nice to see them both go to the finals.

Just like our fifth graders after their Skype visit with Rob Buyea, our fourth graders after meeting with Phil Bildner kept thinking, talking about and reflecting on their Skype visit. They shared something they learned as readers and writers as well as special messages for the author. Below are some of the most frequently heard comments that show how much they enjoyed the visit, how inspired they were to continue reading and writing, some new strategies they discovered, how much they enjoy Phil Bildner’s books and want him to continue to write books. There has been much request for his books in  our library and I have promised our students a few more to enjoy before the end of the school year.

Here are some of our students’ voices:

​Something we learned about being readers…
Reading can be fun.
You should read a variety of books to know what you like.
Read all kinds of different books by different authors: chapter books, picture books, graphic novels.
You need to understand the topic of a book.
Read different books so you can find new books.
Phil Bildner likes reading all kinds of books and so do I.
When you are an author, you can still read multiple types of books to be inspired by them.
When you read different formats you can learn how to write different formats.
If you read something you really like, then maybe you get inspired to read and learn about something else.
You can learn from the books. And to be a good writer, you need to read more books.
You can get inspired to write about something when you read.
Read what you like to read.
I learned to be enthusiastic and inspired from what I read.
Read about subjects you are interested in.

​Something we learned about being writers…
Writers always bring a notebook because when a writer travels and if suddenly they have an idea then they can write it down.
When writing a book your voice always comes through.
Always rewrite your story to make it even better.
When you write something, you need to keep editing until you think that there is nothing to be changed, and to make your best effort.
You have to edit things and write things over and over to get it right so it is your best work.
Put in your best effort if you want to put your name on a book.
No matter how long it takes, don’t give up writing!
Write so that it makes the readers feel like you are reading the book to them.
Everything has to be your best and if it’s not good then you have to write it again.
It takes time to make a book.
If you put your name on something, then it should be your best work.
Put a little piece of your personality in your books.
When you write a book you should write about something you like or know about.
Write about what you love.

Something we would like Phil Bildner to know…
I enjoy your books and you should keep making more.
You are a very good author and I like your books.
I like the way you write and I like your books.
I like your books because they are funny and inspiring to read.
I really like your books and you should keep writing.
You should write more books/longer books about history and equality.
I would love it if you tried to make more chapter books.
You should write more picture books. I enjoy them!
Write a graphic novel series.
Keep recommending us books.
I really enjoyed skyping you because we read your books but then skyping you was like reading one of your books but in real life.
You are very energetic and cheerful and it was fun to skype with you.
I like how you use all these cool words and how you are so pumped up all the time.
You are super funny and nice and fun to talk to.
I like how enthusiastic you are about writing.
Can you please make a book about 4ren?

And the most often heard message is like the ones below, asking the author to come to Hong Kong:
I really enjoyed the Skype and I hope you can come to Hong Kong.
You are funny and nice and I would really like if you came to Hong Kong.
Please come to Hong Kong and to HKA and talk at a assembly!
It would be fun if you came to Hong Kong.
Come to Hong Kong – it is epic!

More than two weeks have passed since Literacy Week and it has again been a bit more quiet on the library blog - but not in the library itself. It has been as busy as ever as you can also see from our constantly growing author inquiry display. The library is packed every morning with students reading, exchanging books, doing origami or playing a boardgame with a friend. During the day classes visit to inquire about authors, to discover new books for pleasure reading and personal inquiries, to participate in book clubs and literature circles and to dig deep into personal wonderings during inquiry circles as part of their current unit of inquiry (Sharing the Planet). Below are a few snapshots. Enjoy!

PK1 students exploring the difference between fiction and nonfiction/informational books...

PK2 making a new literary friend and discovering what life can look like in South Africa through Niki Daly's Jamela books...

Kindergartners finding out more about author Matt Cooper and getting a chance to connect to their prior learning under Sharing the Planet when listening to and discussing The Last Gibbon...

G1 continuing their inquiry about Atinuke and enthusiastically learning and sharing their learning about plants during inquiry circles...

G2 students embarked on a new author inquiry - Ying Chang Compestine - and are intrigued by the stories they heard so far and have many questions and wonderings already...

G3 students continuing to inquire about Lenore Look - currently we are reading Ruby Lu Brave and True, making connections to what we learned about and from her during our Skype as well as what we already know about Alvin Ho...

G4 students continue finding out more about Phil Bildner, surprised to discover how clearly they can hear his voice in his stories...

G5 students reflected on their Skype with Rob Buyea, in particular what they learned about writing from him and what strategies they might like to try out in their own writing...

Stay tuned to find out more soon :)

Just like every day this week, we started the day with story time in different languages in the library. Today's readers shared stories in Italian and Mandarin, which were all very much enjoyed.

Then our fourth graders came to the library to meet with author Phil Bildner. Just like when reading one of his picture books for the very first time (Marvelous Cornelius), it was an instant connection. There were smiles and happy waving, yes even some enthusiastic cheers. Everybody was hooked, listening attentively to what the author had to share about his life as a writer and his creative work. 

Our fourth graders had many questions and got lots of answers - for example about what inspired him to become a writer, whether there was an author that had influenced him in particular, what his writing process looks like and what he finds challenging when writing, about the themes in his books and why he chooses to write about them, how long it takes to write a book and whether he prefers writing picture or chapter books. There was also a lot of talk about books written by other authors as Mr. Bildner asked each student after they had asked their question what they had read recently. Our students loved hearing that they had so many favorite books in common with the author: Because of Winn Dixie, The One and Only Ivan, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the I Survived series, the Percy Jackson series, Reina Telgemeier's graphic novels and many more. I could tell that our students would have loved to continue chatting when our time was up; that much fun they had!

Our next agenda item was the much anticipated Battle of the Books between a team of teachers and parents against all of our students. To make it a manageable task in a short period of time, we had selected just 6 books from the list of 20 for parents to prepare. And prepared they came, ready to challenge our students. It took our parent/teacher team a few minutes to get into the competition but from then on it was a close race. Hardly any questions were missed on either side. While the atmosphere was more competitive than usually during our practice meetings, it remained friendly with lots and lots of smiles all around - also because everybody had some yummy treats to nibble on. The final count put the students just one point ahead of the parents - and the parents are already asking for a rematch.

The third highlight of the day was our fifth graders' Skype with Rob Buyea, author of the much loved Mr. Terupt series. After listening to the first book in the series, Because of Mr. Terupt, as a class read-aloud, all of our students were looking forward to meeting the author - and so were we librarians and teachers. This was already our third Skype with Mr. Buyea, and from past Skypes, I knew that without any doubt, this would be another fantastic experience. I couldn't wait for this year's fifth graders to be blown away and inspired by him, hearing him talk about his writing - and the importance of reading.

Our students had many writing questions which Mr. Buyea answered with much detail - for example what he enjoys about writing, what his favorite writing environment and tools are, how he plans his stories, what tips he has for getting ideas, what skills you need to write a book, and whether he has a favorite writer and favorite books. He mentioned many authors he admires, such as Christopher Paul Curtis, Gordon Korman and Richard Peck, and recommended a number of books by other authors to our students as well: All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, Wolf Hollow (which some of our students who knew the book already greeted with loud cheers), and Masterminds. Especially excited everybody got, when he showed us an advanced reader copy of his newest book, The Perfect Score, which will be released in October, and told us a bit about the story which is again written from different perspectives. When spontaneous applause broke out, I knew that our fifth graders are as much looking forward to reading this book as I do!

There would be so much more to say about our wonderful authors but I will stop here for today and in the upcoming weeks let our students share more with you about what they learned, what they took away from meeting the authors - tips, ideas and surely, above all, inspiration.

A big THANK YOU to both Phil Bildner and Rob Buyea, for staying up late to Skype with us here in Hong Kong, for sharing their amazing stories with us and for inspiring us to become the best readers and writers we can possibly be!

​We had a wonderful first day of Literacy Week 2017, hosting several authors from outside and within our HKA community. In the morning, Sai Kung-based author Matthew (Matt) Cooper met with all of our EC students and G2, sharing some of his stories as well as answering some of our students’ questions.

​First in line were our PK2 students. Their session began with the reading of Matt Cooper’s very first children’s book, Lost in Hong Kong, which tells the story of a dog, who in pursuit of a balloon crosses Hong Kong by different means of transportation. While being a good audience, our young readers and inquirers were keen on sharing their own knowledge about transportation. After the story, they were surprised to see some of the early ideas for the book and to learn that an author tries out many different ideas, writes many thousands of words, before the story is right. During the question and answer part of the session, our students were further surprised to hear about Matt Cooper’s favorite places to come up with ideas: under the shower, on the bus, while doing the dishes and on the toilet (this caused a lot of giggling among our students) – basically any place boring.

​Next, Matt Cooper met our first graders, capturing their interest with his newest book, released just about a month ago, The Last Gibbon. It was pretty impressive hearing our first graders share their knowledge about habitats and habitat loss, making predictions about the story as well as sharing personal connections. As you can see in the pictures below, our first graders were totally hooked and had so many questions after hearing the story. From the author’s answers they learned amongst others, that the Hainan gibbon is an endangered species with only 26 animals left, the reason why he wrote the book to create awareness; that he tries to make his stories interesting by making the reader feel for the characters; that he works closely with his illustrator Stephanie Suen; that it is hard for him to say which of his books is his favorite; that finding a good title is difficult, that he has to try out many things, thinking about what is really important in the story and how to give a clear message; that he likes being a writer even though it can get frustrating at times since there are so many other things you need to take care of besides the writing (finding an illustrator, doing the layout for the pages, getting the book printed, proof-read, promoted, sold); and that he became an other simply deciding one day that that is what he wanted to do. 

The third session of the morning was our biggest crowd with both PK1 classes and their buddies from G2. Our second graders did a great job modeling for our youngest students what it means to be a good audience and how to ask questions. After listening to Lost in Hong Kong, students played a little quiz – what is the fastest/safest means of transportation – before getting to ask some of their questions. Mr. Cooper shared with the audience that he likes being an author because he enjoys writing, meeting kids and working in his pajamas (our students loved that last part and shared all about our pajama day tomorrow). He also said that he does not deliberately write always about animals but living in Sai Kung and caring about endangered animals made him come up with the stories so far. With regard to his favorite book, he said that he likes the different books for different reasons: Lost in Hong Kong because it was his first book, Black Rain Day because he wrote it for his daughter, and The Last Gibbon because he cares for the plight of these animals.

​Our kindergarteners had the last session before lunch. As they currently inquire about transportation, they had a particular interest in hearing the story Lost in Hong Kong and learning more about means of transportation around Hong Kong. They loved the transportation quiz, trying to guess what form of transportation is the fastest and the safest around Hong Kong (would you know?). As we did not have enough time left for more questions, Mr Cooper promised to answer them by email.

​After lunch, we offered an author panel session to our grade 4-8 students in the secondary library. We had invited Matt Cooper, James Stevenson (author of The Medusa File, a novel for young adults), Khalid Saleem (author of the children’s picture book The Circle and the soon to be released young adult memoir Growing Up Green), and Anton Buntin (author, illustrator and artist, currently working on various projects), who had kindly agreed to share about their writing and publishing journey. Everybody enjoyed hearing about the different experiences, different backgrounds, what inspires each of the authors to write and how they go about the process; as well as the similarities as all stressed the importance of writing down ideas, to daydream and think up stories. A student question about favorite writing spots brought more interesting answers: Anton likes laying on his belly on the carpet, just like when reading comic books, and type on the computer; Khalid is inspired to write wherever there is some sunlight and fills yellow legal pads; James can write in any place as long as he is with his story; and Matt dresses up as a clown every morning – no, stop, that was a joke – he prefers quiet when sitting at his computer and also realized that movement helps him getting ideas. I especially loved hearing the many positive messages and words of encouragement for our student writers: to go for it, not to let anyone discourage you, to seek out supportive mentors and collaborators, to experience the joy of writing and storytelling. Their enthusiasm was contagious and I think it wasn’t just the students who felt inspired to go and jot down ideas and start planning for a book after the session.
 
A big THANK YOU to all of our authors!

Last Thursday, Feb 16, we joined millions of other readers around the world to celebrate World Read Aloud Day. Brought to life by LitWorld founder Pam Allyn in 2010, the day aims at raising awareness of the many children and adults around the world who cannot read. The number indeed is shocking: 758 million. Having access to such a beautiful library as ours, with a wonderful collection of books from all over the world, it is easy to forget, that not everyone is so fortunate. Here are two special highlights from our day.

Our Primary Battle of the Books team had the amazing opportunity to Skype with author Kirby Larson. Her award-winning novel Dash is one of twenty titles on this year’s Hong Kong Battle of the Books list and definitely a favorite among our readers. From her home in Washington State, accompanied by her “wonder dog” Winston, Mrs. Larson talked about her writing, answered students questions with much detail, shared the first chapter of her novel Liberty, and made some reading recommendations of books written by other authors.

​While our students already had some knowledge about the author’s background and her books, they were interested in finding out directly from her what inspires her to write and what in particular inspired the writing of Dash; how she decides on what to write about; how she finds the information for her books; what she feels when she writes; whether she has favorite writing materials and/or a favorite writing spot; and what her favorite book is – from the ones she has written and by another author. She answered each question with so much detail and we all felt we got to know so much about her and what it means to be a writer.

​It was amazing to hear her talk about how she got to meet Mitzi’s niece (Mitzi is the main character in Dash), who actually still had Mitzi’s suitcase and other items from their time at the internment camp; how she uses primary sources as much as possible for her research, talks to experts, but also looks for example at old cookbooks for recipes of the time period she is writing about, gets old letters, post cards and maps from second hand stores for more information and inspiration. I could tell our students were surprised to hear such a successful author talk about how hard writing the first draft always is, and how she would suddenly do the laundry or clean out an old drawer, to avoid writing, that she feels much better working on her second draft and revising. A strategy that surprised all of us – teachers and students alike – is her going somewhere really noisy, like a coffee shop, to proofread her work. She said that she knows if her mind begins to wander, she needs to have a closer look at that passage again, to make sure it can hold the reader’s attention. Usually though she works at her computer at home. She also showed us some of her notebooks, another important resource for her writing.

A question that students are always curious to ask an author regards favorite books – ones they have written as well as those written by others. Mrs. Larson talked about her “book children” and how each is special in their own way, making them all her favorites. A picture book that was a favorite in her family for a very long time is How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen written by Russell Hoban. Other books she loves and recommended are Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie and Barbara O’Connor’s Wish and How to Steal a Dog (she loves dog stories like many of our readers at HKA too). Especially beautiful was the heartfelt “awww” from our students in response to her mentioning Winn Dixie, a book loved by all of us as well. 

I feel a special connection, a special bond was made during this Skype between Mrs. Larson and all of us, and it is my wish and hope that one day we will be able to welcome Mrs. Larson at Hong Kong Academy.

A big, big THANK YOU, to you, Mrs. Larson, for this beautiful gift of a Skype visit, for inspiring us as readers and writers.

In the afternoon, some of our fourth graders enjoyed some more reading fun via Skype, this time with a fourth grade class, their teacher and librarian at the Jakarta Intercultural School. As has almost become a tradition, some of our teachers joined the librarian at JIS, Ms Pickles, for a bit of reader’s theatre from Mary Ann Hoberman’s wonderful book, You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You. Then students got to exchange reading recommendations. Some of the books recommended by the JIS students were The False Prince, El Deafo, Billionaire Boy, Wolf Hollow, Ella Enchanted, Wonder and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Among the books our students recommended were Roller Girl, Percy Jackson, The Time Quintet, Ellie McDoodle, Amulet and Duke. Students then asked each other a few questions about school uniforms (the JIS students do not wear uniforms) and special events (both school celebrate a cultural/community fair and book/literacy week). 

In two weeks, we will celebrate our annual Literacy Week at HKA, this year inspired by Gene Luen Yang’s Reading Without Walls initiative and Grace Lin’s TED talk “The Mirrors and Windows of Your Child’s Bookshelf”. Our aim is to raise awareness and encourage the reading of diverse literature; books as windows into the world, into the lives of others, and as mirrors, showing us a reflection of who we are. This past week, our fourth and fifth graders began tuning into Literacy Week, by watching the first 5min of Grace Lin's TED talk - Grace Lin being a children's author known by many of our students, who enjoy her novels such as Where the Mountain Meets the Moon ​and Dumpling Days, as well as her beautiful picture books.

Seeing the reactions on students' faces while they were watching the TED made it obvious right away that they had a lot to say about what they were hearing. They were shocked about the treatment Grace Lin experienced while growing up and saddened that she felt she could not be who she really was. It was wonderful hearing students say that this would not have happened at our school, that our multicultural environment allows everyone to be who they are, that our different cultures are celebrated. They also mentioned that our library had books from many different authors, from many different countries, about many different topics, in different languages. We also spoke about the importance of reading diverse literature, to understand ourselves and others better, to be able to consider different perspectives and develop empathy for others.

Next, I asked students to explore books in our library and to find one or more books in which they would either find a reflection of themselves or a view into someone else's life, someone else's world. They then shared their books, explaining why they had picked them and how they were either mirror, window or both. Choices were not always based on ethnicity or cultural background, but also included gender, interests, or character traits for example. Below you can see some of the books that were chosen.  

The books students selected will be part of our Literacy Week display and I hope you will be able to stop by to read some of the wonderful books that make up our diverse collection. A big THANK YOU to our grade 4 and 5 students for getting us off to a great start into Literacy Week 2017, "Books Are Windows Into the World"... and can show us a reflection of who we are. For our display, we also welcome photos from parents and teachers with books that are mirrors and/or windows.