NLB's Popular Book Bugs Card Programme Is Back

Book Bugs: Explorers of Stories Past aims to invigorate the love of reading among children through exciting play

nlb book bugs cards

Back with a brand new look

The National Library Board (NLB) is bringing back the popular and successful Book Bugs programme this December. Book Bugs: Explorers of Stories Past is a bug-themed collectible card game that aims to inculcate and expand a child’s love of reading. In this edition, children can look forward to exciting new content based on local and regional stories and folktales in English and mother tongue languages (MTLs). The last edition of Book Bugs had generated over 11 million book loans in our public libraries and received participation from close to 140,000 children. This positive response provided the impetus for NLB to bring the Book Bugs back for another edition.

The programme, which is into its third run, incorporates gamification elements to transform the way children read. Players are awarded points when they borrow books or eBooks. The points can then be used to redeem Book Bugs cards, which are available for redemption starting 14 December 2020. There will also be various quizzes and programmes that give opportunities for players to earn bonus points and Book Bugs merchandise.

The programme will feature pop-up events and playoffs, which provide opportunities for children to take part in language games and collect tokens. Children will get to play against each other with their collected cards. In addition, patrons can earn chances to win a Book Bugs Explorer’s Kit in the Bug-a-thon lucky draw by borrowing physical books and eBooks in MTLs. All events will have safe management measures in place.

Book Bugs has also been recognised by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions as an exemplary programme that embraces technology and games to transform reading habits. NLB hopes that through Book Bugs, children will discover the joy of reading.

national library book bugs redeem

A new Book Bugs experience and new stories to explore

Book Bugs: Explorers of Stories Past is set in the mythical period before stories were put into books, when bugs used to roam free and had the chance to transform every time a story was told. Here, the bugs serve as a metaphor for characters in specific stories and children get to ‘travel’ through different mythical lands while collecting these bugs.

This edition of Book Bugs expands on previous editions by diving into local and regional stories, folklore, and trivia while also focusing on mother tongue languages. The bugs are based on Singapore stories and folktales such as Attack of the Swordfish and Badang, as well as stories from the region, such as Sang Kancil, Madame White Snake, and Tenali Raman, to name a few. Some cards will present trivia in both English and a second language including Chinese, Malay or Tamil.

New features of this Book Bugs programme include:

74 exciting new cards – 35 English cards and 39 Bilingual cards (13 from each language).
Cards that will be released in phases, according to the four different lands that the bugs reside in (Magical Forests, Mysterious Seas, Mystical Mountains and Marvellous Homes).
All public libraries, except library@esplanade, library@orchard and library@chinatown, and Choa Chu Kang Public Library, which is currently under renovations, will have card dispensers.
Monthly quizzes from which to earn bonus points.

Book Bugs: Explorers of Stories Past is in line with NLB’s Readers for Life, Learning Communities, Knowledgeable Nation vision, where we encourage awareness, appreciation, and greater discovery of Singapore’s rich history and culture, and the region. The team behind the programme used NLB’s rich collection of Singapore and Asian Children’s Literature to develop this round of the Book Bugs programme. Find out more about Book Bugs: Explorers of Stories Past here, and also stay up to date with more trivia, upcoming card releases, do-it-yourself activities, and programmes on NLB’s social media channels.

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