A team of Waimea College bookworms have won the national Readers’ Cup competition after analysing six books better than any other team in the country.
The Year 9 team of Bonnie Hughes, Pippa Brookes, Mackenzie Adlam and Emma Taaffe had 10 weeks to “deep read” the books before a Zoom quiz to test their knowledge and memory on characters, events and details in the stories.
Students are challenged to read closely, think fast, work collaboratively as a team, and continue developing a love of reading.
After a nervous start with a few technology issues, the team had 30 seconds to answer each question about the books which included their favourite of the six books, Five Survive, by Holly Jackson.
Most of the books were written by New Zealand authors and the team read the books multiple times, then quizzed each other at length in the lead-up to the competition final.
“Everybody specialised in three books so we could all cover a couple each,” Emma says.
Reading books is a favourite pastime for the team members, and among them some of their favourite books include A Court of Thorns and Roses, Keeper of the Lost Cities and The Hunger Games.
“A good book can take you to another world,” Emma says.
Each team member took home a prize consisting of a pair of Apple AirPods, a $60 book voucher and a trophy.
