The British winners are now to compete in New Zealand next summer at the international final of the Kids’ Lit Quiz. Geraldine Brennan reports
Louisa M Alcott’s date of birth; the first line of Tom’s Midnight Garden; Paddington Bear and Dr Dolittle trivia: Linett Kaymer cannot be caught out when it comes to children’s literature.
Her team-mates in the Kid’s Lit Quiz national winning team from Bancroft’s school, Woodford Green, Essex, are hot stuff, too. Year 8 pupils Lewis Saville and Sam Agbamu will join Linett and Daniel Morgan-Thomas, both in Year 7, at the world final in New Zealand next summer.
Their prize is a week-long stay in New Zealand with all expenses paid, except their flights from the UK.
Bancroft’s is the first private school to win the quiz, which is supported by The TES, in its three years. It has competed every year with Kevin Gallagher, English teacher, as coach. The team even brought a substitute, Rebecca Cox, who spent the train journey setting practice questions.
The quiz, which quizmaster Wayne Mills calls “The Reading Olympics”, has attracted more than 2,000 children from 211 secondary schools, slightly more than last year.
Fifteen schools competed in the final in Newcastle, where George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh, came second, with Tile Hill Wood school, Coventry, in third place.
Professor Mills, who teaches at Auckland university’s department of education, also set questions on contemporary authors such as Cornelia Funke, Garth Nix and Eva Ibbotson, and one question on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
“Keep reading!” he said as the teams began their return journeys (the pupils of Stanchester community school in East Stoke, Somerset, had left home at 5am).
When last seen, Linnet was reading Numbering all the Bones, by Ann Rinaldi.
Lewis had a Star Wars novel, Daniel was reading Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, by TS Eliot, and Sam had Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Daniel, a walking answer to those who say teenage boys never read, admitted that he had another 10 books in his bag, “but I might have read them all”.
More pictures from the final and Wayne Mills’ multiple choice quiz on www.tes.co.uk. Worldwide news from the quiz on www.kidslitquiz.coml geraldine.brennan@tes.co.uk
