Harvard University book prize

This year's Harvard Club of Hong Kong Schools Book Prize is now open to all secondary schools in Hong Kong.

Each school that applies can choose three outstanding students who will win a prize. The students will be invited to attend a special ceremony to receive their prizes.

Launched in 1910, the award was established to attract talented young people to Harvard University in the US.

The Book Prize now attracts about 1,700 schools from all over the world.

Schools set their own criteria - academic achievement, language skills or improvement - to select a winner and two runner-ups from the second-to-last-year classes: Form 6, Year 12 (in a 13-year system), Grade 11 (in a 12-year system) or high school junior.

The Book Prize was first awarded in Hong Kong three years ago. Last year, 140 schools nominated students.

This year's theme is the value of perseverance and dedication in education.

Winners will receive The Man Who Turned the Lights On, a biography of Gordon Wu written by Rosemary Sayer.

Runners-up will be given Camel Bells in the Windy Desert, an autobiography about growing up in Inner mongolia written by Andrew Tu, whose wife is the prominent educator Elsie Tu.

The winners will receive their books at a presentation at the Central Library on May 23.

The prizes are sponsored by the Harvard Club of Hong Kong and other organisations.

Interested schools can apply for the programme at www.harvardhk.org/bookprize.