South African News

On Saturday, a team from Manor Gardens Primary School in Durban won the 2015 South African Kids' Lit Quiz decisively and, with the school's strong pedigree in the Kids' Lit Quiz, appear to be early favourites for the world title.

In 2011, a Manor Gardens team won the world title by the biggest margin in Kids' Lit Quiz's 24 year history and, in 2015, two teams from the school competed at the National Final. Clearly a school with a strong commitment to literacy, Manor Gardens kids have also provided many of the book reviews for Reading for Australia - have a look at the left sidebar for all books recommended by keen readers.

The 2015 South African team from Manor Gardens Primary School

Best of all, Manor Gardens is a state school, showing that literary excellence as well as success at the Kids' Lit Quiz is not only for "rich kids" from private schools. As South African national coordinator, Marj Brown says,

“The quiz has state and independent schools. The difference between these can sometimes be devastating: some schools don’t even have libraries. But as a state school, Manor Gardens’ achievement shows that wonderful things can come from well run state schools.”

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

That's what we'd say in Hong Kong where the local dialect is Cantonese or, as they say in Mandarin, Gong Xi Fa Cai!  They're both wishes for a prosperous new year. Happy New Year everyone!

The lunar new year display in the Elements shopping centre in Hong Kong

It's the year of the sheep (or if you prefer, the ram or goat) in the Chinese zodiac, starting on 19 February and ending on 7 February 2016.

Happy International Book Giving Day!

Fiona Roberton's poster celebrates both books and Valentine's Day!

 What are you doing to celebrate?

Have a look here to see what's happening around the world and here's one local story, the Itty Bitty Book Van, Australia's only travelling children's bookshop, is visiting kindergartens in Geelong.

There are lots more celebrations of books everywhere. See what's going on near you!

See more here

The aim of International Book Giving Day is to get books into the hands of as many children as possible. Definitely something we should support and celebrate!

Not Long Now! 2015 Kids' Lit Quiz Australia

With the UK, US and Canadian competitions already decided and South Africa's about to begin, the 2015 Australian Kids' Lit Quiz is less than a month away!

The Australian team at the 2014 Kids' Lit Quiz world final in Falmouth, Cornwall in July

Australia

Schools in and around Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Ipswich and Orange should contact Nicole Deans (at kidslitquizaustralia@gmail.com) to register their best readers for the upcoming "sport of reading" tournament. It's a great way to promote literacy in school communities and to celebrate and reward good readers.

The team (of 4 readers aged between 10 and 13 years) which wins the Australian final (to be held at Monkey Baa's fabulous Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre in Darling Harbour, Sydney on Saturday, 14 March) is invited to the 2015 World Final, to be held in beautiful Connecticut, USA in July.

Click on the links to find out more about:

the 2015 Australian competition,
how the Kids' Lit Quiz promotes literacy in schools,
what previous participants and educators say about their Kids' Lit Quiz experiences,
Stripes and Stars: 2014 Queensland heat
Kings and Queens, Insects and Mice: 2014 NSW regional heat (Orange)
Cannibalism and other stories: 2014 ACT heat
The day the Kids' Lit Quiz came to south-west Sydney: 2014 Sydney heat
2014 Australian Final 

After the jump there's more information about what's been happening around the world in the 2015 Kids' Lit Quiz - great books are being read everywhere!