Literature lovers reading for national finals

WHO is Ron Weasley's pet? Who had a teacher called Miss Honey? And what scared away hungry animals by telling them about a terrifying Gruffalo?
Four Whangarei Intermediate School year seven students knew the answers to those questions and more - knowledge that helped them take out the Northland regional Kids Lit competition in Kerikeri against more than 30 other teams.
They edged out a Kamo Intermediate team by just half a mark, followed by the Whangarei Intermediate year eight team.
The Whangarei Intermediate year sevens now head to Auckland in June to compete in the national competition, which could see them heading to Oxford, England, to take on the most literate kids in the world.
Team member Andrew Simpkin said the thought of testing their skills against other top kids was pretty daunting but "hopefully we'll do well."
The Kids Lit Quiz aims to motivate children to read for pleasure and develop on-going reading habits, and quizzes children on books, poetry, comic strips and films.
Whangarei Intermediate teacher Garth Rodda called for interested students at the beginning of the year, and held a school-wide quiz to to find the most literature-savvy kids.
So how to study for a quiz on literature? Read lots of books, of course. And having two boys and two girls on each team means there's variety of expert topics.
Year eight pupil Meg Williams is a fan of Jacqueline Wilson's books, which are stories aimed mainly at young girls, while Jake Whiteman likes sci-fi author Eoin Colfer, who created the character Artemis Fowl. Categories in the competition included rodents, toys and seasons - which left little clue as to the actual questions.
"One of the questions in the rodents category was "Who is Ron Weasley's pet?", and another question could be something like "Who was nicknamed Rat?" in a book or something," Meg explained.
Mr Rodda said by winning the regionals, the students had continued on what is becoming "a bit of a tradition" at the school.
• All that remains is a lot more reading before June.
The answers are (1) Ron Weasley's pet is Scabbers the rat in the Harry Potter series, (2) Miss Honey was Matilda's teacher in the Roald Dahl classic Matilda, and (3) a mouse, in the story The Gruffalo.
Caption details: BOOK LOVERS: Whangarei Intermediate School teams came first and third in the Northland regional Kids Lit literature quiz held in Kerikeri. The year seven team which placed first go on to represent Northland at the national competition in Auckland in June. Here year eight student Meg Williams, and behind her from left, Connor Cooke, Ben Reyburn, Georgia Parr, Sean Kerwick, Juliet Esveld, Andrew Simpkin and Jake Whiteman savour their win.