Announcing the Winners of the 2012 LLL Award |
The Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF), an unaffiliated, not-for profit organization that supports and promotes extensive reading in language education, takes pleasure in announcing the winners of the 7th Annual Language Learner Literature Award for books published in 2011. An international jury chose the winning book in five categories, taking into account the Internet votes and comments of students and teachers around the world. The judges’ comment is followed by reactions from readers of the book. |
Young Learners
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Aladdin Adapted by Gill Munton and illustrated by Kristin Varner (Macmillan English Explorers, Macmillan Education), ISBN: 9780230719804 Judge’s comment: It is amazing that this well-known story is absorbing and fun even if it is retold in very simple English. |
Student’s comment: Aladdin falls in love with the Royal Princess and wants to marry her. Then, can the magic lamp help him to realize his dream? Will the two have a happy ending forever? What will happen to the wizard? Following the plot, and you will find the answer. In a word, this is a book teaches us not only the knowledge, but also the truth of goodness and evil, beauty and ugliness. |
Adolescent & Adult: Beginner
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Just so stories By Rudyard Kipling. Adapted by Elizabeth Ann Moore and illustrated by Daniele Fabbri (Black Cat ), ISBN: 9788853010131 Judge’s comment: These enchanting stories have the incantatory quality of oral literature and are simply a delight to read. Easy and engaging – the repetitions here bring the advantage of recycling and helping to memorise vocabulary and whole chunks of language without being monotonous or patronising. Gorgeous illustrations. |
Student’s comment: I love this book because it’s fun and short. It’s not realistic but it’s not important, it’s just a story. I like this type of story which explains the world funnily and with dreams. |
Adolescent & Adult: Elementary
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A Little Trouble in Dublin By Richard MacAndrew (Cambridge Discovery Readers, Cambridge University Press), ISBN: 9788483235522 Judge’s comment: This exciting book features a set of twins in Dublin, in Ireland, on a school trip, and a false bank note. The clever twins solve a mystery that has an unexpected ending. |
Student’s comment: This book is well designed for beginners. Furthermore, it is interesting and mysterious. |
Adolescent & Adult: Intermediate
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The Everest Story By Tim Vicary (Oxford Bookworms Library, Oxford University Press), ISBN: 9780194236 Judge’s comment: This was one of the more interesting non-fiction readers we have come across for a long time. It will be of interest to most young adult readers. Mount Everest is eternally intriguing, and here, the mountain itself is like a character from a novel. The mystery of the disappearance of George Mallory on the first British Expedition to climb Everest in 1921 is the narrative thread which links together fascinating information about the mountain and the challenge it has posed to climbers for nearly a century. Great pictures too. |
Selected Student’s Comments: The story is interesting and the pictures are good. With the real photos, readers imagine the story more specifically. I think the plot is also good. In the beginning, a dead body is found…. It makes us feel thrilled, and more curious about this book. |
Adolescent & Adult: Upper Intermediate & Advanced
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Dragons’ Eggs By J. M. Newsome (Cambridge English Readers, Cambridge University Press), ISBN: 9780521179041 Judge’s comment: Excellent storyline, very good development of characters, this story is pitched not only at the right level it will also appeal to the major target group of readership, young adults. The issues in this book will have positive, lasting effects on readers. This book is hard to put down as it takes you on unexpected paths. |
Student’s comment: A reader said one scene in the book ‘… was so shocking that I couldn’t stop beating my heart. |
Finalists in Each Category
In addition to the winners, the following books were selected as the shortlisted “finalists” in each category:
Young Learners
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Animals In Art By Richard Northcott (Oxford University Press), ISBN: 9780194644433 Student’s comment: This book is interesting. It talks of all the shapes of animals in art. I liked the illustration because they are very different and interesting. Each paragraph is next to a painting, drawing or photo of an artist. The artists are varied and with many nationalities and their work is typical. |
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The Owl’s Song By Paola Traverso and illustrated by Daniele Fabbri (Black Cat), ISBN: 9788853010117 Student’s comment: The illustrations are beautiful, it has a good moral,the characters are cute, the story is funny, the fairies’ dance was super (children can dance it), interesting dialogues, funny exercises, great idea about the audio support. |
Adolescent & Adult: Beginner
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The Game By Sue Murray and illustrated by Craig Phillips (ILTS & Hueber Verlag), ISBN: 9783196029765 Student’s comment: “The Game” is a great book. It has an original story with knights, wizards, princesses in a video game and Dylan, the player, goes into the game. It’s fantastic! |
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Under the Bridge By Lynda Edwards and illustrated by Sonia Kretschmar (Pearson Longman), ISBN:9781408231975 Student’s comment: This story is great. Because before I started reading, I thought this would be a sad story from the cover picture. When I finished reading this story I felt happy, because main character recalled things she have forgotten. |
Adolescent & Adult: Elementary
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The Black Night By Denise Kirby and illustrated by Ian Forss (ILTS & Hueber Verlag), ISBN: 9783196429763 Student’s comment: I really like this story because it is talking about art and I really like art. It shows that Archie is the brave man, he caught the thieves and helped Tash. This book was really good and interesting. |
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The Time Capsule By Robert Campbell and illustrated by Arianna Operamolla (Helbling Languages), ISBN: 9783852722832 Student’s comment: Very exciting and creative, I read it twice. fun fun story! the boy in the past is now the boss of her father’s company is fantastic plot, I think. I strongly recommend this book. |
Adolescent & Adult: Intermediate
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Leaving No Footprint: Stories from Asia Various authors, retold by Clare West, and illustrated by Kim Seng and Prashant Miranda. (Oxford Bookworms Library, Oxford University Press), ISBN: 978-0-19-479141-0 Student’s comment: It’s a very interesting book, because it explains different things about Asian people a long time ago that now for occidental people it is sometimes hard to understand. |
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Not Above the Law By Richard MacAndrew, (Cambridge English Readers, Cambridge University Press), ISBN: 9780521140966 Teacher’s comment: A real page-turner of a detective story. My class found the opening scene particularly gripping and it set them on to reading the rest of the story at full tilt. They thoroughly enjoyed the story. They liked the setting and the interaction between the characters. And they thought the ending was quite moving. A really good detective story. |
Adolescent & Adult: Upper Intermediate & Advanced
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A Lion Called Christian By Anthony Bourke and John Rendall, adapted by Jane Revell. (Scholastic), ISBN: 9781905775934 Student’s comment: This is such a heart-warming and touching story describing a deep affection between Christian and the two men. I felt strongly that it doesn’t matter whether a human or a wild animal in terms of love. Despite their close relationship, the scene wild animals’ instinct sometimes appears brought me to the reality. |
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Two Worlds By Helen Everett-Camplin. (Cambridge Discovery Readers, Cambridge University Press), ISBN: 9788483235638 Student’s comment: The connections between the three stories are very surprising and I think the book isn’t too sad and it’s realistic and enables you to think about life and a lot of things. |
The winning books and shortlisted finalists are available for online purchase at the Cambridge International Book Centre: http://www.eflbooks.co.uk/reader_finalists.php
The ERF thanks the publishers who nominated books, the members of the Award Jury, and all the students and teachers who evaluated this year’s finalists.
To contact the Extensive Reading Foundation, email rday@hawaii.edu