Extensive Reading Awards

This from Tom Robb:

Every year, the Extensive Reading Foundation recognizes the best new graded readers in English. The finalists for the 2007 Language Learner Literature Award were announced last Saturday at the IATEFL Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland (see list at the end of this message).

The ERF solicits teachers with students who can help evaluate the finalist books. This year the Award will be given in four categories: Young Learners, and three categories for Adolescents & Adults: Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced.

In cooperation with the publishers, the ERF will arrange for two copies of each finalist book in one category to be sent to ten teachers per category who meet the following criteria:

1) The teacher or school has an extensive reading class or program in place to which the supplied titles can be added.
2) Students can read, evaluate and vote for the books by the July 20 deadline.

Students who read all the books in the category may directly cast their vote at the URL at the end of this message. Alternately, groups in the class, or the class as a whole may discuss the merits of the books and cast a group vote.

To apply, send your request to trobb@cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp stating the category for which you apply, with a brief description of your class, the number of students and their general reading level. Include your postal mailing address and contact telephone number. In the event of more than 10 teachers applying in one category, we will select for balance of country and geographical area. Preliminary decisions will be based on requests received by May 5, 2007 but requests after that date will still be honored for any categories that have fewer than 10 recipients.

We apologize that the timing of this announcement may preclude the participation of classes in parts of the world where the school year is about to close.

The finalist books in each category are:

Young Learners (3 books):

"The Boy Who Burped Too Much" (Stone Arch Books); "The Goose Girl" Classic Tales Elementary 2 (Oxford University Press); "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" Classic Tales Elementary 2 (OUP).

Adolescents and Adults

* Beginners (3 books): "Blog Love" Scholastic Readers Starter Level (Mary Glasgow/Scholastic); "Let Me Out" Cambridge English Readers Starter Level (Cambridge University Press); "The Story of Chocolate" Easyread Level One (Black Cat).

* Intermediate (4 books): "Crossroads to Love" Teen Readers Level 3 (Aschehoug/Alinea); "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" Penguin Readers Level 3 (Pearson); "Rabbit-Proof Fence" Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 (OUP); "Strong Medicine" Cambridge English Readers Level 3 (CUP).

* Advanced (2 books): "The Age of Innocence" Bookworms Library Stage 5 (OUP); "Barchester Towers" Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 (OUP).

See The Extensive Reading Foundation for further information about the LLL Award and how you may order your personal copies of the finalist books.

I haven't read any of these books, but I'll be ordering the adolescent and adult ones for our library.