Children compete in ‘sport of reading’
What is the name given to the nonmagical world in the Harry Potter series? Who fed her husband worms with his spaghetti in a Roald Dahl book?
Those and 98 other questions were thrown at about 120 children at Nelson Intermediate School yesterday, at the regional heats of the annual Kids’ Lit Quiz competition.
The competition for 10- to 13-year-olds was started by retired Auckland University lecturer Wayne Mills in Hamilton 27 years ago and has since gone global, with children from Indonesia and Nigeria competing for the first time this year with 11 other countries in the world finals in Auckland in July.
Students had to have read everything that had been written for students in the last 200 years to be across every question, Mills said.
‘‘Parents are blown out of the water. They do not know how their children know some of these answers.’’
More than 30 teams of four students from Nelson and Marlborough took part, with a group from Nelson College Preparatory winning by half a point and going through to the national final in Wellington on June 10.
It meant a lot to win, said Joshua Hobden, 12, who was competing for the third time.
The questions were no easier this year, he said. ‘‘I’ve just read more since the last competition.’’
A team from Nelson Intermediate, which had won the regional title for the last three years, came third, with Bohally Intermediate from Marlborough second.
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