The sport of reading

The Kids Lit Quiz has been called the Olympic games of reading, the pub quiz without the beer and the sport of reading. What the authors, headmasters and headmistresses and general audience who came to witness the event were not prepared for, was the incredible buzz – an atmosphere that no one would have ordinarily linked to the usually solitary pursuit of reading.

Here were children: currently the best readers in the world out of thousands of children who had taken part in regional and national heats in six parts of our globe: the best teams from SA, the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This was an opportunity for the national teams to travel to SA and take part in a grueling quiz based on the last 2000 years of literature. The contestants would face 10 themes with 7 questions per theme, on topics they would only know as the quiz began. On top of this was the pressure of hitting the buzzer first –if they gave the correct answer they receive 2 points and if it was incorrect they would lose 1 point.

Wayne Mills, the international quizmaster, and winner of the Order of Merit in New Zealand for his services to children’s literature, had spent a year carefully crafting questions that were interpretive and required higher order thinking. He predicted that out of the 22 years of running the quiz, this would be the most difficult, as the teams were so strong: 4 out of 6 schools had been in the 2012 world finals and 1 school in the 2011 finals. He thus felt the outcome would be close. He could not have been more accurate: the results were three teams with one point between them – SA first, NZ second and Canada third.

Different teams had strengths and shone in different themes. It was impossible to predict who would win this final. SA answered the very last question correctly and leapt to victory! The winners were treated to trophies made by SA artists Robin Opperman, R6000 in cash to share amongst the 4 team members, books, the world trophy and certificates.

The teams were received by Counselor Logie Naidoo at the Durban City Hall and the quiz was followed by a gala dinner amongst the tanks at the Ushaka Marine World. Fourteen SA authors attended the dinner and kids could buy their books and get them signed. Authors and audience alike were treated to one child from each team talking about their favourite book. All teams were treated to a week in Durban. The teams saw a range of sights – from Moses Mabidha Stadium, to game viewing in Tala, to a shark dissection at the Sharks Board!
Well done to all the teams on their performance. A special congratulations to the SA team on their victory – to Shreeya Khoosal, Katherine Duvenage, Julia Kinghorn, Jessica Wise and their coach Gill Murdoch.

Huge thanks should go to the sponsors of this event – The Times Media Group – for supporting literacy and promoting literary excellence.