100 Teams try Kids’ Lit Quiz Canada in 2015!

Kids’ Lit Quiz Canada has had another year of growth!

From our humble beginnings of 13 teams in 2011, reaching 100 teams in our fifth year was a huge milestone! For more information on how we got from there to here, see last year's review here.

Once again, we were thrilled to have excellent author participation in 2015. Many thanks to the Quizzards of Oz, Team Hirsute, The Inkslingers, Awesome Authors and Write Again - our intrepid author teams! Their names are listed at the end of this post, together with links to their websites.

It is wonderful for our KLQ readers to be in such fine company! Readers meet writers and writers meet their fans. I wonder how many KLQers will be inspired to become authors themselves?

Some of the fun at the 2015 Canadian heats

Letter from South Africa: A Parent's Joyful Discovery

Today's post is a letter from Jo-Ann, a South African mother of a Lit Quiz Kid to Wayne Mills, the founder and quiz-master of the Kids' Lit Quiz. 

Jo-Ann's first experience of the Kids' Lit Quiz captures the joyful discovery that many parents have had revealed to them through the Kids' Lit Quiz; the unexpected pleasure that comes with understanding what makes a Kids' Lit Quiz reader. 

Our thanks to Jo-Ann for her permission to to publish her letter here. I've edited it slightly to protect the privacy of Jo-Ann and her daughter.

To read more about the 2015 South African KLQ competition, see Marj Brown's report at the end of Jo-Ann's letter. You can also read an Australian educator's perspective on the benefits of the Kids' Lit Quiz, in Janine Hudson's piece, Hooked on Reading, in this post.  Finally, there's more "fan mail" from young readers who have enjoyed the Quiz as well as from authors, educators and other amazed parents at this link.

But, first, here's Jo-Ann's  letter.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

South Africa, 22 July 2015

Dear Prof Mills,

I know that you have many good books to read and questions to compose but I hope that you will have some time for this lengthy letter of thanks. I have delayed sending it so that it won’t seem like the manic mutterings of a recent Kids' Lit Quiz convert. However, even after a respectable wait following the South African final, I find that I am still completely enthused by our experience.