Hong Kong Battle of the Books Modified List 2013/14 (29/05/2014)
| Venue | ： | Carmel Secondary School (Final) |
Review
In which book did a man give someone an important item to "guard it with care and use it with wisdom"?
In which book are the walls of a descending staircase covered with a series of ancient murals?
In which book are a character's hands and feet tied before being locked in a room?
These are just a few examples of the questions the 16 participating teams (see list below) from local secondary schools had to answer at the semi-finals and final of Hong Kong Battle of the Books (HKBoB) Modified List 2013/14 on 14 and 29 May 2014 respectively.
Congratulations to all the Battlers! You all did an excellent job! We found the questions at each round really challenging! One has to pay attention to all the details to be able to answer accurately! It was wonderful to see the battlers working as a team, conferring with each other before giving their answers. We couldn't help smiling sometimes when some students got so excited that they wanted to reply before the question was even finished! That's what makes this Battle a roaring success - the students were truly enjoying the books and having great time competing.
After the keen competition at the semi finals held at four venues on14 May 2014, Creative Secondary School, Carmel Secondary School, Po Leung Kuk Tang Yuk Tien College and Good Hope School emerged as the finalists. Surprisingly, except for Creative Secondary School, the others were all first time finalists and all of them only started joining the battle last year, making it very hard for us to guess who the winner would be!
The trophy went to Good Hope School! The girls were very well prepared indeed for the Battle and it was fantastic to see such enthusiasm from all the team members in every school.
Blooming Club believes that local schools need a competition like this to help students discover the pleasure of reading. The books chosen by the Hong Kong Battle of the Books' committee (consisting of experienced librarians) always cover a variety of themes suitable for the students' reading and interest age. When we started sponsoring the Battle five years ago at its inauguration, there were only four schools, each with about 6 to 8 students on its team. This year, there were 16, the number was the same as last year's, but in fact three of the schools from the previous years did so well that they have moved on to the more advanced mainstream battle mostly entered by students from international schools whose first language is English, and where there are 20 books on the reading list instead of 12. Mary Mount School did so well this year there that they brought home the trophy! We are truly proud of them. We sincerely hope that all the battlers will continue to find pleasure in reading in the years to come!
The Battle wouldn't be a success without the support of the HKBoB committee, the teachers and students of the 16 participating schools, the schools that provide the venues, the Association of Librarians of English Speaking Schools (ALESS), and last but not least, the publishers who put into print stories, whether fiction or true, of individuals whose lives are fascinating to read.
We would like to thank Bloomsbury, Harper Collins UK, Harper Collins US, Hodder, Macmillan UK, Macmillan US, Orion, OUP, Puffin UK, Puffin US, Scholastic UK, Scholastic US, Random House UK, Random House US, Usborne and Walker, for their continuous support and for brilliant book prizes.
Click below for the list of 16 Blooming Club recommended books selected from our 16 sponsoring publishers this year and the Book List of Hong Kong Battle of the Books Modified List 2014/15. They make great summer reading!
To learn more about the battle, please go to https://sites.google.com/site/hkbattleofthebooks/home
It will be lovely to see more schools in the battle next year! Let's get more children excited about books!
List of 16 participating schools
- Carmel Secondary School
- Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Secondary School
- Creative Secondary School
- CUHKFAA Chan Chun Ha Secondary School
- Good Hope School
- Hoi Ping Chamber of Commerce Secondary
- Law Ting Pong Secondary School
- Po Leung kuk Ho Yuk Ching 1984 College
- Po Leung Kuk Tang Yuk Tien College
- NLSI Lui Kowk Pat Fong College
- St. Mark's School
- St. Mary's Canossian College
- The Chinese Foundation Secondary School
- TWGHs S. C. Gaw Memorial College
- Wah Yan College, Kowloon
- YMCA of HK Christian College
Hong Kong Battle of the Books (Modified Section 2014-2015 Reading List
Blooming club Recommended Reading List
Hong Kong Battle of the Books (Modified Section) 2012-2013 Reading List
