IASL Conference in Doha, Qatar!

The Qatar International School Librarians will be hosting the 41stAnnual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship incorporating the 16th International Forum on Research in School Librarianship from 11 – 15th November 2012.  Our theme is "The Shifting Sands of School Librarianship" and the major strands are: Internationalism, Innovation and Creativity, Collaboration, and Literacies and Fluencies.   (See our website at iasl2012.org) We are seeking presentations in the following categories: Workshop or Presentation for Concurrent Session · 50 minutes or 1 hour and 50 minutes · Any presentation style · Any topic related to one or more of the conference strands and school librarianship · Application deadline:  April 15, 2012 Presentation of Professional Paper or Previously Published Article or Paper · Same as above, with the addition of the presentation of a paper that may be included in our conference proceedings. · Application deadline:  April 15, 2012 Presentation of New Research as Part of the Peer-Reviewed International Research Forum · Same as above, with the presentation of new, formal research.  All papers will be peer-reviewed by an international committee and will be published in our conference proceedings. · Application deadline:  March 15, 2012 Trade Presentation · 50 minutes or 1 hour and 50 minutes · Commercial presentation of product or service related to school librarianship · Application deadline:  April 15, 2012 To apply to be a presenter at the conference, fill out the form at: https://docs.google.com/a/asd.edu.qa/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dExRUFB4RlRUdDltaDU3V2p5LW5fT0E6MQ#gid=0 The form can only be submitted online.  To see a document version of the questions so you can save your answers for your own records, use this link: https://docs.google.com/a/asd.edu.qa/document/d/1Voxt2N5qOd7mgeeu66wlg8a8q7cn3ptkL6AD6Za1h-o/edit?hl=en_US For information on the program, please contact Linda Hoiseth.

2012 ALA Award Winners and Honors

And the 2012 ALA Award Winners and Honors are…

As advocates for international schools and libraries, we understand the excitement of book award and honor winners and having the information as soon as possible. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the list of all of the American Library Association's 2012 Award and Honor titles that were announced this morning.  

In addition, make sure to read about our Give Away at the bottom of this email message!

John Newbery Medal

"Dead End in Norvelt," written by Jack Gantos

Two Newbery Honor Books also were named:

·      "Inside Out & Back Again," written by Thanhha Lai
·      "Breaking Stalin's Nose," written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

Randolph Caldecott Medal

"A Ball for Daisy," illustrated and written by Chris Raschka

Three Caldecott Honor Books also were named:

·      "Blackout," illustrated and written by John Rocco
·      "Grandpa Green" illustrated and written by Lane Smith
·      "Me … Jane," illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell 

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:

"Where Things Come Back," written by John Corey Whaley

Four Printz Honor Books also were named:

·      "Why We Broke Up," written by Daniel Handler, art by Maira Kalman
·      "The Returning," written by Christine Hinwood
·      "Jasper Jones," written by Craig Silvey
·      "The Scorpio Races," written by Maggie Stiefvater

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award

Kadir Nelson, author and illustrator of "Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans"

Two King Author Honor Book recipients were selected:

·      Eloise Greenfield, author of "The Great Migration: Journey to the North," illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist
·      Patricia C. McKissack, author of "Never Forgotten," illustrated by Leo and Diane 

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:

Shane W. Evans, illustrator and author of "Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom

One King Illustrator Honor Book recipient was selected:

·      Kadir Nelson, illustrator and author of "Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans"

Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement:

Ashley Bryan is the winner of the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime achievement

Schneider Family Book Award

The Jury chose not to award a book in the category for children ages 0 – 8 because no submissions were deemed worthy of the award.

Two books were selected for the middle school award (ages 9 – 13):

·      "Close to famous," written by Joan Bauer
·      "Wonderstruck: A Novel in Words and Pictures," written by Brian Selznick

The teen (ages 14-18) award winner is "The Running Dream," written by Wendelin Van Draanen

Alex Awards 
for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences:

•   "Big Girl Small," by Rachel DeWoskin

•   "In Zanesville," by Jo Ann Beard

•   "The Lover's Dictionary," by David Levithan

•   "The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens," by Brooke Hauser

•   "The Night Circus," by Erin Morgenstern

•   "Ready Player One," by Ernest Cline

•   "Robopocalypse: A Novel," by Daniel H. Wilson

•   "Salvage the Bones," by Jesmyn Ward

•   "The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures," by Caroline Preston

•   "The Talk-Funny Girl," by Roland Merullo 

Margaret A. Edwards Award

Susan Cooper is the 2012 Edwards Award winner

·      "Over Sea, Under Stone"
·      "The Dark Is Rising"; "Greenwitch"
·      "The Grey King"
·      "Silver on the Tree"

If you are interested in the many other Awards and Honors posted at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference, please let us know and we will send you the complete list.

At the 2011 ALA Summer Conference, I had the opportunity to meet with Lane Smith and he autographed an advanced copy of "Grandpa Green", which is now a Caldecott Honor Book. We would like to Give Away this copy to a lucky International School or Librarian. If you would like to enter our Give Away, here are the rules and directions:

1.   Registrations must be from an International School (Librarian, Teacher or Administrator) or International Librarian.

2.   Registrations need to be sent to giveaway@jennifer-nelson.com and MUST include the following information: name, job title, school name and email address.

3.   Registrations need to be submitted on or before 9:00 AM US CST Tuesday January 31, 2012.

4.   Winner(s) will be announced on our Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/jennifernelsonllc ) and Twitter account (@jnelsonllc) on Thursday February 2, 2012.

If you would like for us to send you an easy to complete Order Form for the above Award and Honor titles, please let us know. In addition, the Award and Honor Lists will be posted on Children's Plus, Inc.'s website at www.childrensplusinc.com.

Please let us know if we can be of any assistance with your book, AV, furniture, supply and automation needs! We are here to be of assistance to you!

Best regards,

Jennifer Nelson Saracevic

President

Jennifer Nelson, LLC

Email:             jennifer@jennifer-nelson.com

Office:            +1-847-380-2153

Skype:            jnelsonsaracevic     

Linkedin: Jennifer Nelson Saracevic

Sklobal:          Jennifer Nelson Saracevic

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jennifernelsonllc

Twitter: @jnelsonllc

Website: www.jennifernelson.com

I would like to invite you to follow us on Twitter and connect with us on Facebook and Sklobal. 

Jennifer Nelson LLC  (www.jennifernelson.com) : Signature Solutions for International Education and Libraries

Jeeva Raghunath, storyteller, visiting in February

A very happy New year from the team at Tulika Books, Singapore!

We are emailing to inform you about Jeeva Raghunath's visit to Singapore next month.

Jeeva Raghunath is an acclaimed author and storyteller who has written a number of Tulika Books.

A primary teacher by training, Jeeva started telling stories from the age of 5 as she grew up amidst excellent storytellers. Thanks to Tulika Publishers who gave her the responsibility of translating an activity-based storybook into Tamil, she was introduced to the public as a storyteller. She has now grown to be a resource person, representing India at many international conferences.

Jeeva's lively and dramatic storytelling performances keep all ages spell-bound. She believes that she is the best prop for her storytelling though she occasionally uses hand-puppets, paper and sign language. Stories include a wide range of Indian and Asian folk-tales, European tales, family stories, true life incidents, cross-culture stories and modern stories. She is now an author of children's books and has translated 17 books and written two original stories two Tamil (regional Indian language) letters book. She has performed for many private television channels including Vasantham. Her original writings include Malli (bilingual), Gadagada Gudugudu (Tamil), Kasakasa (Tamil).

Her voice can be heard on many audio recordings as well including "Stories from India" with Roger Jenkins- drama plus arts- Singapore. Jeeva's professional experience has taken her all over the globe, including Toronto, Cayman Islands, Toronto, Singapore, Malaysia. She is a founder member of the World Storytelling Institute, Chennai.

Jeeva will be in Singapore in February 2012. She can do readings from any of the Tulika titles. She is also available for workshops to train teachers in improving children's language skills through story telling. Her storytelling rates are SG$200 for a half- hour session and SG$500 for a teachers' workshop.

Catch a glimpse of Jeeva's storytelling:

Please let me know if we can explore this. We would be happy to set up a stall at your school for the sale of Tulika Books during the storytelling as well.
best regards
Jyoti Ramesh
tulikasg@gmail.com
----------------------------------------------
TULIKA BOOKS SINGAPORE
Jyoti Ramesh & Deepika Gopalan
Tel: 65- 8201 4757/ 9069 9070

Fwd: Food for thought re: community outreach opportunity for ISLN

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sarah Torrible <storrible@cis.edu.sg>
Date: Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 8:37 AM
Subject: Food for thought re: community outreach opportunity for ISLN

Happy New Year everyone!!

From: Big Brother Mouse <bigbrothermouse@yahoo.com>

Date: January 10, 2012 PM 12:08:41 GMT+08:00

To: info@bigbrothermouse.com

Subject: A village that wanted a book

Good morning! This newsletter is shorter than most, in accordance with what I must admit was my LAST New Year's resolution: "make those newsletters shorter and more frequent!" Recently, we heard a story from a remote village where we've set up a village reading room, in the home of a volunteer. This village is in the mountains of Ngoi district. It isn't on a road; the only way to get there is a 2 hour trip by boat. Last year, we published a book about World War II. Somehow, several people in the village had heard about the book, but the reading room there hadn't gotten copies from us yet. (They told us the story on our last visit, when we took that book, and others.) So the next time a boat was going to the main town, the librarian rode along, and  borrowed a copy from the reading room there for 2 weeks, for which he paid the equivalent of about 25 cents (U.S.) I'm been in Laos so long I'm not sure how someone in another country would react to that story. But to me, it was a cause for celebration. When I first came here, I heard the same thing again and again: "Lao people don't read." Most people, of course, had nothing at all to read if they wanted to; and what existed was pretty dull. Who could say what would happen if they had access to good books? Now, as we've been creating that access, with help from many of you, we're getting the answer: With good books – books that are interesting, books that help them stay healthier, or have better lives, books that are fun, books that promote education – people DO want to read. They'll even go to some effort to do it. With 170 books, and five years of experience figuring out the best ways to get books into rural villages that didn't have them before, we're now ready to do more. Will you help? In the attached proposal, we're asking you – as an individual, a school, a civic club, a church or synagogue, or just a group of people who come together to make a difference – to help us grow. The new year is a time that many of us like to set some new goals; perhaps this could be an opportunity to ask others if they'll join with you, to share your good fortune with others. Please take a look. Thank you for considering this, and we all send our best wishes for the new year. Sasha Alyson for Big Brother Mouse Books that make literacy fun! www.BigBrotherMouse.com

--

Sarah Torrible
Teacher Librarian

Canadian International School
Tanjong Katong Campus

371 Tanjong Katong Road, Singapore 437128

Tel:   +65 6345 1573  I  Fax:  +65 6345 4057
URL:  www.cis.edu.sg  

Cilck here for TK Library homepage

Click here to access our online Tumblebooks Library

Engage. Enlighten. Empower. http://www.bigbrothermouse.com

REMINDER: Sign up for the SAS Children's Literature Conference, Feb. 18

Registration deadline =  February 7th

This is your chance to see
Harry Bliss

Candace Fleming

Eric Rohmann

Pam Muñoz Ryan

For complete information on the conference, visit our web site at: http://sasclc.sas.edu.sg   

Questions about the conference can be directed to Nancy Johnson: njohnson@sas.edu.sg

We look forward to seeing you at the Conference!

On behalf of the Conference Planning Team,

Nancy Johnson

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Nancy J. Johnson

8th grade RLA

Singapore American School

40 Woodlands Street 41

Singapore 738547

(65) 6360 6670

njohnson@sas.edu.sg 

Visiting Poets in March - interested in having them?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jocelyn Beckingham <jbc@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg>
Date: Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 9:19 AM
Subject: Visiting Authors (poets)

I'm having Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger as visiting poets for 5 days at the end of March (26th-30th).  Both have been highly recommended by SAS and ISBeijing.  Sara is suited for the younger ages and Michael is good with Intermediate or Middle school students.

Their cost is US$1,500 per day (which includes their per diem costs), so we only need to add flights and accommodation.

Would anyone like to have them at the same time so we can share the costs?  Please let me know as soon as possible if you have any interest, as they need to finalize their flights.

Cheers,

Jocelyn

jbc@uwcsea.edu.sg
Mrs. J. Beckingham
Teacher Librarian
David Watson Library

UWCSEA DOVER

Red Dot Awards - new promotional materials & way to have kids comment

With 52 days until voting on the Red Dot Book Awards begins, we have uploaded some new promotional material you can download off the website:

•  bookmarks for easy photocopying (thanks to Sarah Torrible), and 
• a poster which explains the four categories and summarizes the important information about the awards and Readers Cup

We have also added a Comments form and display at the bottom of each book's page on the website (rather than having a separate blog for each category, we decided to try using Google Forms and Spreadsheets as the vehicle -- and look forward to your feedback on how it works for you and your students).

The Comments/Review form can be accessed in several ways.

The category pages (Early Years, Younger Readers, Older Readers, and Mature Readers) allow students to easily access all the books for commenting.

Ching Yeung Russell in Asia September and October 2012

Happy New Year!

I am Ching Yeung Russell, author of Tofu Quilt, which was nominated for the 2010-2011 Red Dot Award in Singapore . I will go to Hong Kong (and perhaps Japan) to visit schools in the months of September and October, 2012.  I would like to see if any of the schools in Singapore would be interested in me coming for an author’s visit. Since I will already be in Asia, I will not charge the school for airline tickets back and forth to Asia, but only for the ticket from Hong Kong to Singapore and back, room and board, and my regular daily fee of US $850 for four sessions. If several schools in Singapore invite me, they can share the transportation cost.  You can check my website for more information.

If this request is too late, please keep my name and information for your end-of-the-year librarians meeting for consideration of a visit next year.

I hope I can hear from you regarding this matter.

Kung Hey Fat Choi!

Ching
www.chingyeung.homestead.com

National Year of Reading 2012

2012 has been designated the National Year of Reading in Australia. A website of resources has been developed to promote reading with adults and children which you will find useful with your school community.

To receive regular updates from the website you can join the mailing list or follow on twitter @love2read2012.

The Love reading>for children link is especially useful, containing an excellent list of blogs and websites for book selection and reading promotion for children.

Join the Twitter discussion - The Amazing Read. #NYR12

Happy reading 2012 to you and your school community! Linda

Minutes from our Nov 30, 2011, general meeting

Click here to read the minutes of our last meeting

Our own Daniele Weiler - author of a new book - The French in Singapore

The French in Singapore: An illustrated History (1819 - Today) - La France à Singapour via kwout

Yes, one of our members has just published a book.  Congratulations, Daniele!

Contact Daniele if you want her to come and speak at your school.

Judy Kong's replacement at the NLB

FYI:  Judy Kong has returned to the MOE.

Ms. Mardhiah Mahamood is her replacement at the Bukit Merah library.

Ms Mardhiah Mahamood | Assoc Librarian | Bukit Merah Public Library | 
National Library Board 

DID +65 6377 6408 | Fax +65 6375 5128 | 
Email MARDHIAH_MAHAMOOD@NLB.GOV.SG |

Website www.nlb.gov.sg 

L I B R A R I E S F O R L I F E : 
Readers for Life, Learning Communities, Knowledgeable Nation