This Tuesday the 20th of September, we went to Auckland to represent the Canterbury Region in the National Finals of the Readers’ Cup competition.

For the Readers’ Cup Competition, we read six books and answered questions. There are three rounds: two books per round. The competition has been running for five years.

At the beginning of Term 2, we started reading six books, ‘Dry’ by Neal Schusterman, ‘Ground Zero' by Alan Gratz, ‘Cook’s Cook’ by Gavin Bishop, ‘Rapunzel’s Revenge’ by Shannon Hale, ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry, and ‘One’ by Sarah Crossen. We put a lot of effort into this; spending many hours at lunchtime and after school practising. We won the Regionals (beating Cashmere who’ve won three times) by ½ a point.

For Nationals we read : A tale of two worlds’ by Michel Faber, ‘Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society’ by Adeline Yen Mah, ‘The Cousins’ by Karen McManus, ‘Nor’East Swell’ by Aaron Topp, ‘If Not Us’ by Mark Smith, and ‘A Drop of Hope’ by Keith Calabrese.

On Tuesday 20th September we went to Auckland and competed in Nationals with 11 other teams. Before the competition, we got the chance to look around Auckland and go shopping at the Newmarket. The competition was fierce right from the beginning and we were still waiting for Wellington East Girls school to arrive due to flight troubles.

Their eventual arrival was greeted with applause, and they completed the rounds they missed. By the last round, we were all up to date and we finished the competition together. We placed second, losing by ½ a point to Carmel College from Auckland’s North Shore.

The Readers’ Cup competition has been incredible and we have learnt so much from this experience. 

It was such a valuable opportunity for us in Year 9 and we can’t wait to take on the next competition in Year 10 as a team: Battle of the Bibliophiles!