"Our students always like to go one better, we've been second twice and third once, we've just never cracked the winning of the national one," she said.
"The kids have been working really hard, they meet with our librarian Cathie Calman at least a couple of times a week and have read lots of books. That's kind of all you can do."
Whanganui Intermediate are sending two teams to the heats, each team has four members and they can be from 10 to 13 years old.
At the nationals, there are 10 rounds of 10 questions asked by the quizmaster - students write down their answers on a piece of paper and then have them checked.
"His rounds are really obscure, he could have a round on water, which means there has got to be a connection between every book and water," Ms Duncum said.
"Or a round on siblings, you just never know what he's going to come up with."
Basically, every question relates to something in a book, ranging from nursery rhymes to books for young adults.
The answer required might need to be the name of a book, the name of an author, or the name of a particular character within a book.
When asked what they needed to do to win the national final, Ms Duncum laughed and said "we hope that he asks the right questions".
"No, first we've got to focus on the Whanganui/Taranaki competition. Our students love it, they call it the sport of reading and it's really important to them."
