There is great excitement in our school as our two teams prepare for the Oxford Heat of the Kids' Lit Quiz on 13 November, at the White Horse Tennis and Leisure Centre, Audlett Drive, Abingdon, 1.30 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. This is the fifth year that the quiz will be taking place in the UK, with its inventor Professor Wayne Mills, Senior Lecturer at Auckland University, New Zealand as Quizmaster.
There will be over 30 teams of four students from Years 7 & 8 who will be battling their wits answering questions about books and literature: 100 questions in 10 rounds, with prizes of books after each round. The winning team will win book tokens and a place in the National Final on 3rd December which will take place at The Seven Stories, Newcastle. The team winning the National Final will be invited to compete with teams from around the world for the World Title.
There will be several well known authors and illustrators present. Those who have confirmed are: Mark Robson, Meg Harper, Mary Hooper, Dennis Hamley, Mini Grey, and Rachael Wing. There will also be a bookshop which will, of course, be also selling our visiting authors’ books. (Think early for Christmas – a book makes a perfect gift!)
This will be a great afternoon of lively competition, and it is also a hugely exciting spectator sport. There will be some between-round questions and prizes for the grown-ups too! It is always a very entertaining and fun occasion and everyone present marvels at the young students' breadth of knowledge.
I'm one of the co-organisers of the Oxford Heat. The three of us organising it are volunteers, but we all agree that it is such a fantastic event that it deserves wider recognition in the UK. In New Zealand the Final is shown live on television! Visit the website www.kidslitquiz.com to find out more. Quizmaster Wayne Mills will be blogging as he travels the country, so read the details about each regional heat at http://kidslitquiz.blogspot.com.
