On Monday, 27th March, a fantastic team of avid Year 6 readers went to Tūranga to compete in the Canterbury Regional Heats of the Kids’ Lit Quiz. This event is designed to promote reading for pleasure, library membership and collaborative teamwork. Teams of four students work together to answer 100 questions on children’s literature, which are divided into ten categories. The questions, and the categories, change every year, so teams never really know quite what they are going to get on the day.

The Quiz is a pretty tough competition for Year 6, as they compete against Year 7 and 8s, who can have hundreds of reading hours up on them. This year, the Elmwood team, which included Campbell G, Alice Q, Allie DeV, and Carter T, gained the top score for a Year 5-6 team. This means that they won their section, which is a great springboard for competing at their new schools in Year 7. The team was commended on their conduct, collaboration and comparatively high score for Year 6s.

We also took a reserve, Grace D,  who had her own special job as a runner, collecting answer sheets to keep the whole event running smoothly. She also had her own go at answering each question, so is suitably well-prepared for joining a team in year 7. All of our team members were a credit to the school, and a great pleasure to take out into the community.

During the event, the Quizmaster asks extra questions while the markers catch up, and several of our team members had a go at answering the questions, with Allie scoring herself $5 for a correct answer. This year’s questions focused on a variety of books and films, with many being about Louis Sachar’s Holes, the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit, The Hunger Games (which we usually discourage children from reading at this age), Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte’s Web and many more. There are always questions about books by NZ authors, and a big emphasis on classic literature for children. This year, there was also a surprising number of questions about Marvel and DC Comics characters. The questions are long and detailed, so part of the challenge is to listen carefully to all of the details and understand the question being asked before jumping to discuss and record an answer within a tight time limit. The organisers call the event an opportunity to enjoy “the sport of reading”.

Most of the schools that we contribute to send teams, so there is an opportunity for all to continue with the sport of reading. We even saw the members of last year’s team with their new school teams. It was great to see Sophie, Rosie, Bea and Ellie in their new school uniforms competing with their Year 7 teams.

If you’d like to find out more about the event, follow the link:

https://www.kidslitquiz.com/about-klq.php

Zoe will keep book group meetings running on Mondays for the Y6 children of the current team, as well as any keen Year 5s who read widely and may wish to be considered for the 2024 team.