Join the Readers Cup team! Competition Wed May 22nd

On Wednesday, May 22, the annual Readers Cup competition will be held at SJI International School.

As you may remember, our primary school brought home a cup for the Younger Readers category (okay, tied three ways, but still....).  And we have won the Older Readers category in years past (yay, AMK!).

We'll be sending three teams to compete:  6 members for Younger Readers (Grades 2-4), 6 members for Older Readers (Grades 4-8), and 4 members for Mature Readers (Grades 8+).

The books the teams need to know to answer short-answer and multiple choice questions are subsets of the Red Dot Awards for this year.

The competition is against other international schools in Singapore, e.g., the Canadian school, the Australian school, Stamford American International School, SJI International, Chatsworth, ISS, OFS, and the Dover campus.

Mr. Miles Beasley has volunteered to coordinate getting MS and HS students for the Older and Mature teams.  NB:  The Older Readers team will be a combination of Primary and Secondary students.  Ms. Debbie Diaz, the primary school teacher-librarian, is coordinating the Primary students.  Ms. Katie Day, the secondary teacher-librarian, is part of the Readers Cup quiz management team, so cannot train members directly (for obvious reasons!).

Team members will leave right after school on Wednesday, May 22, on a school bus.  The competition starts at 4 pm and should be over by 6 pm.  Parents and any other students who want to watch and cheer our teams on are very welcome.  There will be light refreshments provided.

Anyone interested should meet Mr. Beasley in the secondary library Monday, May 13, at morning break (9:50am) -- on the ground floor level.  You should have read at least ONE of the books to be considered for the team.

Click on the title below to see sample questions for each book.

Younger Readers Category
1. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
2. Squish - Super Amoeba
3. Lulu and the Brontosaurus 
4. The little refugee
5. Won ton - a cat tale told in haiku.
Picture book - Chalk.

Older Readers Category
1. Wonder
2. Titanic - voices from the disaster.
3. Too small to fail.
4. The one and only Ivan.
5. Tall story.
Picture book - Stuck.

Mature Readers Category
1. The fault in our stars.
2. Erebos.
3. The future of us.
4. In the sea there are crocodiles.
Picture book - Phileas's fortune.

Bookrags: study guides for popular books

The school has an account with Bookrags, an online site with over 400 study guides to popular books.

Bookrags.com is a website with over 400 literature study resources for middle/high school students. Log in with the UWC username and password (see bit.ly/accessuwc).

Note, we have pre-downloaded some study guides which you can access via our Google Apps account.  Click here to access the complete UWCSEA Bookrags folder.

(This same information is available at  research.uwcsea.edu.sg/bookrags )

ebooks - especially academic ones

The NLB has hundreds of academic ebooks available, mainly through ProQuest's ebraryand EBSCO's Netlibrary.

Start on the SearchPlus page and use the Advanced Search box to search both at once.

Click here for a full list of the NLB databases of ebooks.  Three are highlighted below.

NB: for ebook access, you need to log in to an NLB (free) Digital Account. 
Click here for the NLB (free) Digital Account Registration page or go bit.ly/accessuwc for a temporary login/password (just search for "NLB" within the document) 

NLB:  ProQuest:  ebrary

The eBrary's collection of electronic books spans all academic subject areas such as arts and humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and technology, business and economics, computers and IT, fine arts, law, life sciences and medicine. Includes additional premium content such as maps, journals, and reports.

NLB:  EBSCO:  NetLibrary

Previously known as NetLibrary, eBooks (which include audiobooks) are now searchable on the EBSCOhost platform, providing a single source for discovering book content. It offers easy-to-use functionality with access to the latest content and best-selling titles from the world's leading publishers. Its new EBSCOhost interface supports useful features such as browsing by subject area and by latest titles added to a library's collection; viewing of table of contents; searching by specific terms with hyperlinked pages; navigation of chapters and sections; optional download capabilities and much more.

NLB:  Overdrive:  General books

A collection of popular ebooks, audio books, music and video titles including all kinds of genres and many general interest subjects.

A special player Overdrive Media Console is required to listen to the audio books from Overdrive. To check out ebooks/audio books, you are required to type in your username and NRIC or Membership no. or FIN that you first used, when you registered for an NLB Digital Library account. Available at all libraries and from home.

(The same information can be found at  research.uwcsea.edu.sg/ebooks )

How to search the NLB Databases

A new video -- created using Explain Everything -- shows you how to search the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore digital resources.

I've also set up a Google Moderator space where anyone at UWCSEA can ask questions related to the research process.

See  UWCSEA Research Process Questions

So ask away!

And remember, for all your research needs, start at  research.uwcsea.edu.sg

Traveling in the region? Need a guide?

From Thursday March 21 to Thursday March 28, there are over 35 different travel guides on display on the lower level of the Kishore Mahbubani Library which you can order - at prices discounted 20% by APD Books.

All the guides are for cities and countries in the region - and the intended audience is Grade 11 - as these are the places where groups are going for Project Week this year.

Get your order forms in to any library staff member by next Thursday, March 28th -- and the books will be delivered  here by April 30th.

NB: The sale table will also be on display during the Family Fun Festival tomorrow.

And the Red Dot winners are....

The 2012-2013 Red Dot Book Awards - with almost 7,500 votes from 15 schools cast in total over the four categories

Go to the reddotawards.com website for more information, but here are the top prize winners in the four categories - for Singapore as a whole.

Early Years: Chalk - by Bill Thomson

Younger Readers:  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - by William Joyce

Older Readers: Wonder - by R.J. Palacio

Mature Readers: The Fault in our Stars - by John Green

The results for our particular campus were slightly different.

Red Dot Book Awards - One Week to Vote!

Download this UWC Red Dot poster (PDF) for printing here

Once a year for one week we vote for the best book in four categories:  Early Years, Younger Readers, Older Readers, and Mature Readers.  Any student is welcome to vote in any category - as long as they have read at least two of the books in that category (voting, after all, is about choosing).

In the Secondary School we mainly promote the Older Readers and Mature Readers books.  I'm sure you've noticed the big bookshelf devoted to them on the upper level.

Watch these 1-minute videos to remind yourself of the titles on offer this year.

Older Readers (aimed at grades 4 through 8):

Mature Readers (aimed at grades 8 through 12):

Ready to vote?

You can do it through a web browser - go to this webpage:  reddotawards.com/voting2013

Or use this QR code to go to a mobile website:  bit.ly/reddotvote

NB:  Our school voting code is UWCEAST.  The form will ask you for it.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, March 16th.

Afterwards, a subset of the Red Dot books will be selected as the quiz books for the Readers Cup, to be held in May.  Watch for details of how you can enter and compete.