LOCAL AUTHOR: Daniel Wong & "The Happy Student"

Read below information about a new book and author here in Singapore who is available for author visits.

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From his website:
Daniel Wong graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 2011 with a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Economics. Born in South Africa, he lived in Hong Kong and Singapore before heading to Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA) on a full academic scholarship. Before college, Daniel spent two years in the Singapore military as an infantry battalion manpower officer, and currently holds the rank of First Lieutenant. Daniel is passionate about education and has given numerous talks to students about topics such as goal-setting, time management, college life skills, and developing a personal vision for your life. He also gave a TEDx talk at Duke University entitled Realistic Idealism: Seeing People as People. He writes regularly about topics related to education, career, and personal development at www.daniel-wong.com. 

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Links:

The Happy Student website

Daniel Wong's homepage - Dream Big. Start Small. Act Now.

Daniel's Amazon Author Page

Follow Daniel on Twitter or email him: Daniel@Daniel-Wong.com

Readers Cup -- update

All the information about the Readers Cup competition is on the Red Dot website -- www.reddotawards.com -- however, there is a bug when viewing the site (a Google Site) using Internet Explorer.  Recent edits aren't showing up (as SJI International learned today -- when their IE screenshots didn't match mine (taken using Chrome and Firefox)).

Two important links are therefore repeated here:

Sample Questions -- Google Doc
(separate sheets in the spreadsheet for the three categories)

Team Registration Form

Date:  Thursday, May 24th
Time:  Arrive at 3:30 pm for a 4:00 pm start
Location: Auditorium in Block A, UWCSEA East, Tampines campus  (click here for a Google Map)

Questions?  Email Linda Twitchett or Debbie Diaz

2012 Asian Festival of Children's Content discount for ISLN members

Attend the 2012 Asian Festival of Children's Content being held May 26-29 at The Art House.  

ISLN members can take advantage of the Early Bird Prices after the April 30 deadline.

For more information, please check out the website where a full program is available.

For registration information go to the National Book Development Council of Singapore Website.

FW: Author/Race car driver visit for the Singapore F1

.......A Canadian author, former race car driver, school principal and English teacher.....  What an great way to connect our libraries and readers to the hype of the F1 race in Singapore!

Anthony Hampshire has written a series called Redline Racing Series, using his knowledge of car racing and his passion to reach some of the reluctant readers in his classes.  The series is available through Follett.

Tony would stay with our principal and he has factored his flight costs into his daily fee so it's not only a great opportunity, but also a great deal!  $750 for a day, in which he would do several presentations.

Below is some information, from Tony, about himself and his presentations.  

Please let me know if you would be interested in having him visit your library.  I will need to confirm with him ASAP as he needs to organize his schedule, book flights and get his tickets to the Singapore F1 :)  Really, the sooner the better!

Thanks!

Sarah (storrible@cis.edu.sg)

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PRESENTATIONS 

I think that you will need a clear idea as to what I could provide as a visiting author.  I've done many school presentations since the RedLine books were first published in 2001, particularly at the regional Foothills Young Authors Conference.  My presentations are interactive, usually a good deal of fun, and the reviews I've had back from conference organizers indicate that students rate them highly.  As a sample, attached is a .pdf copy of my Young Authors Conference mid school Powerpoint presentation from last year. I also have different versions of this to suit younger/older audiences. 

The substance of my presentations is not about how awesome my books might be and although I could have some shipped out and available for purchase, it isn't a sales pitch.  As old LA/English teachers never die, I use my professional training, racing and author experiences to encourage kids to find their own stories.  We're all writers, and we all have a voice.  While I am a published author and ex racing driver, I am first and last a teacher, and present that way.  I explain my writing process, story development, and share tips that I've learned from experience that students may be able to use.  My goal is to for them to come away with a stronger sense of enablement as writers, perhaps even somewhat inspired.  To accomplish that, I like to directly involve the kids in dialogue and some readings from my books.  As you'll appreciate, that's very difficult to do with 400+ kids in a gym, so given the option I much prefer to do two or three smaller sessions with several classes in a Library or classroom over the course of a day rather than a one shot presentation for everyone.  While I may thus be at a school for most of a day doing several presentations, there's much more value for the school to have an author work with smaller groups, and my fee would be the same.  As a frugal ex-Principal, I know that it's always about value....

To leverage the Singapore GP specifically, I would adapt some of my presentation materials.  I also think it could be fun to correspond electronically with classes & teachers prior to arrival especially if they're involved in GP activities leading up to the race.  I have a fair amount of knowledge about Formula 1 and some first hand experience with a top level racing team.  

For sample chapters from all RedLine Racing books, photos and critical reviews, please see my website at       http://www.anthonyhampshire.com/index.htm   

I also currently serve as the webmaster (and sometimes crewman of last resort) for the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team in California, which heeps me current with modern racing. 

See    http://www.mathiasenmotorsports.com/

PRESENTATION FEES

For a local conference the standard author presentation fee here is $500/day, higher if out of town.  Singapore is a tad out of town for me, so the $750 fee per presentation would be fine. To offset the travel costs of a trip of this distance (see below), I would need to have three or four school presentations confirmed, each at that rate.   As detailed above I would be quite prepared to spend all or most of a day in each school over the week leading up to the race for presentations and interacting with kids and teachers about writing and racing.  I won't do supervision however...

Subcommittees for Hands on Literacy -- take your choice

Our third biennial Hands on Literacy conference is November 17, 2012.

A beginning website has been set up:  https://sites.google.com/site/handsonliteracy2012/

A fantastic keynote speaker has been lined up:  Joyce Valenza, teacher-librarian extraordinaire from the USA.

The location is the brand-new UWCSEA East campus in Tampines.

The Call for Papers/Workshops will be going out by the end of the month.

Now we need more members on a variety of subcommittees to get everything in motion.

Everyone is expected to help out.  Sign up below!

Next meeting -- for anyone who can make it:  Wednesday, May 2, 6pm Buono's Italian restaurant on Lichfield Road in Serangoon Garden (click here for location details).