Oxford University
Championing reading and creativity through the Oxford Big Read 2025
This year, Oxford Big Read brought together students from 15 countries in a truly global celebration of reading, creativity, and collaboration.
The Oxford Big Read is an international competition that encourages students to read OUP books and complete a creative project based on their reading. With three competition levels aligned to school classes, Oxford Big Read continues to foster literacy development at every stage.
This year, participation soared across participating countries, which included Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, and India—which saw a 363% year-on-year increase in submissions.
After months of reading, creativity, and exceptional student participation across continents, we are delighted to announce the Oxford Big Read Global 2025 winners. Their entries demonstrated outstanding imagination, storytelling skills, and deep engagement with their reading.
Level 1 – ages 5-8
Participants read an OUP book and then designed a new cover.
Winner: Mu Zha
From Mainland China
Entry: A New Home by Jan Burchett and Sarah Vogler
“I am a big fan of this book. The pictures are funny. And I love the different shoe homes best. If I had a shoe as my home, I would wish it to be a roller skate. It would have enough room for my family and friends, and it could move fast just like a roller skate.”
Runner-up: Raniah Raiziel Battad Bumutay
From Thailand
Entry: Let’s Make Pizza by Rachel Wilson
Level 2 – ages 9-12
Participants either: read an OUP book and wrote a response describing what they found interesting about the book; OR designed a poster representing their understanding of the book.
Winner: Pham Chau Anh
From Vietnam
Entry: Hachiko by Nicole Irving
“The story of Hachiko, an Akita dog, is one of the most touching stories in Japan. This picture is very important because it makes us feel both sadness and admiration. When we see Hachiko sitting alone, we feel the pain of waiting, but also the beauty of never giving up.”
Runner-up: Yufei Shen
From Mainland China
Entry: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
“The slogan I give the poster, “Going, Going, Gone”, is the cruel sound of a society making a deal, much like the voice-over in the movie The Truman Show. Though my poster has a vintage-chic style, if you look closely, you will find the cold interior.”
Level 3 – ages 13-15
Participants either: read an OUP book and wrote critical review describing the theme, plot, and characters; OR compared and contrasted two books.
Winner: Lại Anh Khôl
From Vietnam
Entry: Madame Marie Tells the Future by Lynne Marie Robertson
“The book teaches me that everyone has a dream and a special talent. I have learned that if we believe in ourselves, we can feel stronger and try harder. The message of the story is that kind and positive words can give us courage, and this makes me think about my own future too.”
Runner-up: Leyang Li
From Mainland China
Entry: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
“Austen’s message is clear: true love and happiness come from understanding, respect, and the willingness to confront one’s own flaws. She rejects the idea that marriage should be based solely on social status or financial gain, instead arguing that emotional connections and shared values are far more important.”
For each level, students were rewarded for their contributions with prizes—from certificates and digital subscriptions to national prizes sponsored by Faber Castell, Amazon, and The Hindu Young World. The prestigious global awards included iPads and even an internship opportunity with our English Language Teaching Graded Reader team.
With global winners representing Mainland China, Vietnam, and Thailand, Oxford Big Read continues to connect students across continents through the joy of reading. Congratulations to all our winners and runners-up for their exceptional achievements.
Find out more about the Oxford Big Read here.
Chair of the Global Prize Committee and Professor of International History and Politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute
“This year’s pool of submissions was remarkably strong. A large number of manuscripts made genuine contributions to their respective fields and were worthy of serious consideration. The judging process was accordingly tough and energizing. I, for one, learned an enormous deal about themes as diverse as Caribbean environments, Vietnamese cities, and Latin American rivers.
“The ECR First Book Prize is invaluable. It doesn’t just recognize excellent books, but helps launch them.”
Rhea Realo, Head of Digital Product at OUP ANZ, said:
“Oxford Digital brings together proven education research, recognized accessibility standards, and ongoing feedback from teachers. Being named a finalist on the global stage is a strong endorsement of the practical, inclusive learning experience we’ve worked with educators to create.”
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a historical dictionary, containing over 500,000 entries and 3.5 million quotations to capture over 1,000 years of English.
Every quarter, we update the OED by revising versions of existing entries as well as defining new words and senses. These updates subtly broaden our understanding of the English language and its use around the world.
10 highlights from this quarter’s update
1. We added more than 400 new words, phrases, and senses to the OED this quarter, including hot yoga, fantabulosa, will-they-won’t-they, and auto-reply.
2. By happy coincidence this update lands just before International Coffee Day (1 October). Coffee drinks new to the OED include Café Cubano, café con leche, cafezinho, and cold brew.
3. This release sees additions from across the world, including contributions from East Africa, Caribbean, Bermuda, New Zealand, Wales, and the Isle of Man. Learn more from Executive Editor, Danica Salazar.
4. From shadeesh to hamma, we welcome several Bermudian English additions, as part of a valuable new collaboration with the Bermuda Spelling Bee. This is an annual spelling competition for 9- to 13-year-olds designed to foster a love of language and learning among young Bermudians.
5. Several new words for supernatural creatures appear in this update. From Welsh folklore we have a bwbach, from Caribbean folklore a jablesse, and we also have the Trinbagonian addition of douen.
6. An important feature of the OED’s New Words team’s work is its Monitor Lexicography (MonLex) programme. This is our way of monitoring, collecting, and prioritizing contemporary language for inclusion in the OED, looking at sources including trending words on language corpora, social media, material generated by our reading programmes, and suggestions made by colleagues on our own internal database. Every other quarter we gather the items collected and assess them for inclusion, prioritizing so that we include the most relevant and important.
Some new words added this quarter from our MonLex programme include: the social media sense of timeline, the sense of slammed meaning very busy or overcome with work, the chiefly North American English word bothsidesism, and lastly, overnight oats.
7. Craig Leyland, Executive Editor, notes the welcome of two reference related words – thesaural and mountweazel. The latter is defined as ‘an invented or fake entry in a reference work (esp. a dictionary or an encyclopedia), a database, etc., typically used by the publisher to identify plagiarism that constitutes an infringement of copyright’. Does the OED contain any mountweazels? We can’t say, of course. You can read more from Craig about both here.
8. More than 700 entries have been revised as part of this update, including ‘gym’ and ‘kanaka’ words. Read more in this commentary from Andrew Ball, OED Editor.
9. The words newly revised this quarter show an especially rich variety of etymologies. In the month that the Bayeux Tapestry goes on view in London, it is fitting that we have a healthy crop of Middle English borrowings from French, or more specifically Anglo-Norman (i.e. French as used in medieval Britain), including doubt, equity, fantasy, and garner. Read more from Philip Durkin, OED Deputy Chief Editor.
10. And finally, being asked about ‘scone’ usually raises a groan for pronunciation editors, but it was good to have the opportunity to provide the ‘skoon’ pronunciation appropriate for the Stone of Scone in this update. Hear more from Catherine Sangster, OED Pronunciation Editor.
Explore the update in more depth here.
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