Times Educational Supplement Kids' Literature Quiz 2005
29 November 2005 Merchant's Hall, Edinburgh
Amanda Minns, Literacy Development Officer, Learning and Teaching Scotland.
Having been a librarian in a previous life, I knew about the Times Educational Supplement (TES) Kids' Literature Quiz from having entered teams myself from the schools I have worked in. So it was with great pleasure that this year I got to go along as a guest to see the East of Scotland heat of this quiz. We packed ourselves into the Merchant's Hall in Edinburgh, where there were 16 teams of four pupils from 14 schools waiting anxiously for Wayne Mills, the question master and brain behind the quiz, to start us off.
The Kids' Literature Quiz started in New Zealand in 1991 and came from a lecture Wayne gave to the Waikato University. It was when Wayne moved to be a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland that the quiz really became a national - and now an international - event. The event first came to the UK in 2003 and is sponsored by the Times Educational Supplement, which also carries the latest news from the heats around the UK.
The 2005 regional heats have just finished, with Lenzie Academy winning the West of Scotland heat and George Heriot's School winning the East of Scotland heat. Both teams went on to the national finals in Newcastle on 5 December 2005. The final UK winner was Bancroft School, Essex, followed closely by the East of Scotland winners, George Heriot's School, in second place. Bancroft School will go to New Zealand next year to take part in the international finals! A truly international quiz with heats also taking place in China and South Africa.
Teams answer 100 book-related questions on a diverse and sometimes bizarre range of topics. The East of Scotland event included topics such as 'Baddies', 'Witches', 'Money' and a visual round. Guests are also kept on their toes with audience questions, with book vouchers up for grabs.
Pupil comments
Some questions were quite easy and some were really weird.
It was exciting to travel to Newcastle to take part in the Final.
Really, really good fun!
Great fun but some of the questions were impossible.
I want to take part next year but I'll be too old!
I generally read fantasy books but KLQ made me try different genres.