Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin’ in Flip-flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball
By Rafe Bartholomew

Welcome to the Philippines, where the men are five foot five, the everyman’s Air Jordans are a pair of flip-flops, and the rhythm of life is punctuated by the bouncing of basketball.

Rafe Bartholomew arrived in Manila with little more than a Fullbright scholarship and an urban legend that Filipinos loved basketball more than anyone else on the planet. He’d heard that the locals constructed jerry-rigged hoops out of any material they could get their hands on – car hoods, driftwood, twisted rebar – and build courts everywhere, from cluttered street corners to the slopes of volcanoes and in the thick of jungles.

Allured by the idea of an island nation full of people who love the game as irrationally as he does, American journalist Rafe Bartholomew arrived in Manila to unlock the riddle of basketball's grip on the Philippines. On his unforgettable journey, Bartholomew spends a season inside the locker room of a Philippine professional team, dines with politicians who exploit hoops for electoral success, travels with a troupe of midgets and transsexuals who play exhibition games at rural fiestas, and even acts in a local soap opera. Sweating his way through hard-fought games of 3-on-3, played with homemade hoops for 50-cent wagers, Bartholomew uses a mix of journalistic know-how and the hard- court ethics he learned from his dad to get in the paint and behind the scenes of Filipinos' against-all-odds devotion to the sport.

Basketball fans of all ages are invited to come to Powerbooks Greenbelt on August 24 / 6PM as we play host to Rafe’s homecoming and book launch of Pacific Rims. The program will be hosted by HARD BALL and ANC News Anchor Mr. Bill Velasco.

Pacific Rims is now available at all Powerbooks branches in hardbound edition for P895.00. Grab your copies now and get a chance to have your books signed by Rafe. See you there!

BANAAG AT SIKAT: ISANG ROCK MUSICAL
National Artists Project: Bienvenido Lumbera and Salvador Bernal

BOOK LAUNCH AND COCKTAILS 6 PM – 8 PM BEFORE THE 8 PM SHOWING

AUGUST 20, LITTLE THEATRE LOBBY

In an unprecedented move, National Artists Bienvenido Lumbera and Salvador Bernal collaborate on an exciting new musical based on Lope K. Santos’ groundbreaking novel about the breakup of the Filipino family and the rise of socialism in the country.

It is Maytime, 1906, in the pilgrimage town of Antipolo. In this rustic setting, a clash is about to unfold on a problem of urbanization. Don Ramon Miranda and Don Felimon, capitalist owners of El Progreso, a cigar factory in Manila, argue with Delfin, a progressive journalist who is also a suitor of Meni, Don Ramon’s daughter, about the labor problem in the factory. This clash of ideas becomes all too personal when Delfin, later supported by Felipe, Don Ramon’s ahijado (godson), defends the workers on the struggle for their rights.

This incident sparks a chain of complicated events—a daughter’s banishment and disinheritance, illicit affairs, a mysterious murder, ideological clashes—that reflect only too well the shifting forces in Philippine society.

Libretto: Bienvenido Lumbera; Music: Lucien Letaba; Production Design: Salvador Bernal, Jr.;  Direction: Jose Estrella.

August 20-22, 27-29, CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino

Children’s Reading Lab

by Dr. Aurora H. Roldan, Ed.D

“Children start out by deriving directly from sensory experience their knowledge of things…as they mature, they start to analyze their sensory experiences—

-- From abstraction, learners proceed to extension and concept development. This marks the beginning of the invention of structure. Learners discover further relations between relationships. They form, within a novel context, a system of structures. This system then represents a synergy between the original structures of things and the learner’s experiences, attitudes, knowledge, and values. We term this critical-creative process concept development.”

The Children’s Reading Lab series is an updated edition of the Reading Beyond series by the esteemed Dr. Aurora H. Roldan, Ed.D. Dr. Roldan is a pioneer in the fields of reading and gifted education in the Philippines. She is renowned, among many other things, for developing learning materials in reading for all levels of Philippine education. Dr. Roldan is the founder-president of the Talented and Gifted Philippines Foundation and the chairperson of the Reading Education Foundation. She also founded and presided over the Reading Association of the Philippines.

The Children’s Reading Lab series contains review notes for previous lessons, worksheets and problem-solving activities in varying degrees of difficulty, all within the context of Filipino values. The books are now available at all leading bookstores nationwide.

Learning Math through English Series

by Anna Santos-Villar and Andrew Philip E. Villar

The child-friendly workbook series upholds the child-friendly initiative, developed by UNICEF and the Department of Education in the Philippines. This book aims to promote a learning environment that recognizes, encourages, and supports children’s growing capacities as learners. The curriculum content is focused on learning and the learner.

Learning Math through English provides an enjoyable learning experience for your child, as all reading materials and math exercises in this book involve meaning text. The child is introduced to basic Math concepts through reading, writing, and oral language, integrated with Science, Social Studies, English, and Art by constructing meaning from texts and lessons that are built on themes. The subject areas are not considered as separate components of a curriculum. Ideas and activities in this book promote children’s self-esteem and self-identity, encourage self-awareness, and enhance learning about family community.

The Learning Math through English books are available at bookstores nationwide.

The New Experiencing Reading Series

by Joycelyn A. Enerio, Rosario L. Garcia, Maria Teresa K. Lagonera, Natividad A. Lansigan, Carmen S. Musngi, Anna Magdalena G. Sison,
and Marc V. Hernandez

The New Experiencing Reading series is an adventure in vocabulary development and an exciting journey into the world of words. Each book focuses on specific levels to equip the learner with age-appropriate literacy skills. Sequentially presented, the different activities encourage the learner to be familiar with the various basic skills involved in phonetic, structural, and contextual analysis.

This series uses the workbook format as supplementary material to any reading program offered in the classroom. The exercises offer opportunities for getting the most out of vocabulary development lessons as a prelude to and support for the continuous development of comprehension skills. It ranges from first preparatory to sixth grade.

The New Experiencing Reading series is available at all bookstores nationwide and is published by Anvil Publishing, Inc.

Mga Alamat at Kuwentong Bayan: Dito, Doon, at Kung Saan-Saan

by Alfredo C. Nem Singh and Rosario P. Nem Singh

Mga Alamat at Kuwentong Bayan: Dito, Doon, at Kung Saan-Saan is a collection of legends and folktales in Filipino for Filipino readers. It is an all-ages collection meant to inspire a love for our roots and spread Filipino values.

Collected and translated by Alfredo C. Nem Singh and Rosario P. Nem Singh, the book also features artwork by Andrew Philip E. Villar, Amos Jan Fraser S. Villar, Anto Bautista, Steph Lim, Kim Primo Molino and Julia Marbella.

The book is available at all bookstores nationwide and is published by Anvil Publishing, Inc.

Games Filipinos Play

by Jovita O. Calixihan

Games Filipinos Play is a journey to the past and a peek at the future. For the old, playing native games is an exhilarating return to one’s youth. For the young, it is simply a bridge to being a citizen with a sound mind in a sound body.

Everyone, at every age, enjoy watching, much more playing, Pinoy games. After all, it is a wholesome vehicle for physical fitness and a great practical lesson on Filipino culture and heritage. But children today seem to have lost that connection to the outside world. They spend most of their time in front of laptops, desktop computers, or game consoles.

This book targets these ends: good health and enjoyment and an immersion in Philippine culture. The author, Jovita Ona Calixihan is an educator and supervisor who served at the Dep-Ed, as well as a poet and a writer of books for all levels of education.

Games Filipinos Play is available at all bookstores nationwide and is published by Anvil Publishing, Inc.