Kids Lit Quiz Australia: 2015 in review

This has been an exciting year for the Kids' Lit Quiz around the world and the 2015 Australian Quiz was no exception, bringing the "sport of reading" to even more Australian schools.  

For all our friends in the international Kids' Lit Quiz community and everyone at Reading for Australia, here's National Coordinator, Nicole Deans' review of this year's competition, a true celebration of good books and great readers.  

Thanks also to Queensland coordinator, Jenny Stubbs, for her photos and comments and to Wayne Mills, quizmaster and founder of the Kids' Lit Quiz (in New Zealand, 24 years ago) for his additional comments and observations. These have been added to Nicole's report, together with links to other related posts and resources.

The 2015 Australian team with Nicole Deans, Wayne Mills and their coach

Congratulations to the team from Orange High School, the 2015 national champions. Our first all-girl national team will now represent Australia at the world final in New Britain, Connecticut, USA in July.

With its purpose of encouraging and celebrating literacy in children aged 10 to 13 years, Kids' Lit Quiz Australia is delighted with its growth in 2015. It has been enormously satisfying to see so many children enjoy the benefits of reading while discovering an international community of like-minded readers.

From humble beginnings in 2012, with the one heat/final in Orange involving 13 teams and a handful of schools, Kids' Lit Quiz Australia has grown to 5 heats, 96 teams, 56 schools and 384 keen readers in 2015. As Wayne Mills says, "We were all delighted with the 39% increase in teams participating across the Australian competition of the Kids' Lit Quiz."

The enthusiasm shown by both the teams and their teachers/coaches shows the value the Kids' Lit Quiz adds to literacy programs in schools. With its focus on reading widely for pleasure by giving kids an open choice of reading matter and the opportunity for teamwork, the Kids' Lit Quiz offers a unique and fun way for schools to build literacy in their communities.

Thank you to all our wonderful sponsors, donors, supporters, hosts, authors and school communities without whom none of this would have been possible. We hope the 2015 Kids' Lit Quiz Australia was an enjoyable experience for you too and that you all come back next year for more literary fun and games.

Orange is the new black!

Or, if not the new black, then, even better, the new reading capital of Australia.

A team from Orange High School took on the mantle of national champions at the Australian Final of the Kids' Lit Quiz in Sydney last Saturday, succeeding the 2014 team from the nation's capital, Canberra Grammar School.

The 2015 Australian team from Orange High School

Reinforcing the depth of Orange's reading talent, a team from Orange Primary School placed second while a team from Kambala School, Sydney - competing in the Kids' Lit Quiz for the first time - placed third. Congratulations to these teams and to the other finalists, Canberra Grammar School (ACT), Kambala School's other team (Sydney), Anglican Church Grammar School (Brisbane) and Ambrose Treacy College (Ipswich). Well done all!

Life of Pi

Today, 14 March (3/14), is Pi Day,  a day that maths is celebrated around the world. As the official Pi Day site says,

"Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159."

Lots of readers like maths as well as books and maths is important too - readers don't need to choose between two. Just as reading and literacy needs to be celebrated, so too does maths and numeracy.

(2001, Knopf Canada)

But, if like me, "pi" makes you think of the excellent book, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel before you think of 3.14 and other numbers then you can recognise Pi Day by reading!  Being greedy, "pi" also reminds me of "pies"; have a look at this guest post by Goldie Alexander on food in children's literature  and this one on my bookshelf for more book ideas.

If you're in Sydney today, you could also celebrate Pi Day by attending the 2015 Kids' Lit Quiz Australia national final at the Monkey Baa Theatre Company's Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre in Darling Harbour. The Final starts at 1 pm and entry is free. See this guest post by Daria O'Neill for more details.

However it is that you recognise Pi Day, whether it be by doing some maths, reading some books or eating some pies, I hope it is a good one for you.  Good luck to all the teams competing today in the 2015 Australian Final.