A team of book-loving students from Awakeri School is heading to Wellington this month after winning the regional Kids’ Lit Quiz competition earlier this month.

The four-person team of Sophia Power, Madilyn Langley, Corinne Woolsey, and Jabu Crouchley earned their place at the national finals after taking out the regional title in Tauranga last month.

The students said the win was unexpected.

“It was really exciting,” one student said. “We were like, ‘Oh, have we won? Have we won? Yes, we won.’”

Another teammate said it took days for the achievement to fully sink in.

“I still can’t believe we’re going to Wellington,” she said.

The Kids’ Lit Quiz is often described as a “pub quiz for kids, but with books”. Questions can cover anything from authors and book titles to mythology, movies based on books, and even obscure literary facts.

“It’s basically a big quiz about books,” one student explained. “It could be characters, authors, books made into movies, pretty much anything.”

The students all joined the club because of their love of reading.

“They are an amazing group of enthusiastic book lovers,” said school librarian and Lit Quiz coach Margo White.

White has coached the team since 2013, though Awakeri School first became involved in the competition around 2010. This year marks the school’s sixth trip to nationals and its first appearance there since 2016.

“We’ve been to the worlds twice as well and won the worlds once,” White said.

The team trains three times a week in preparation for nationals, fitting sessions around sports, school, and other activities.

“Mondays are an hour, Fridays about 45 minutes, and then another session during the week,” one student said.

“We just try to squeeze them in when we can,” White added.

Preparation involves far more than simply reading books. Students study authors, literary themes, mythology, and quiz strategies while also practicing with buzzers for the faster-paced national format.

“The kids don’t know what the categories are going to be,” White said. “We don’t know what they’re going to ask.”

This year’s regional categories included topics such as islands, animals, and famous fictional characters.

The team chose “islands” as its double points round and scored highly enough to secure victory.

The national finals will be held on June 13 at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington. For some of the students, the trip will also include their first plane ride.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” one student said. “But I’m very nervous.”

If the team wins nationals, it will advance to the world finals in Paihia in the Bay of Islands later this year.

White said the competition was about more than winning.

“It’s really nice for kids like this,” she said. “They’re all super-high achievers, but it’s lovely for them to go and see a whole room full of kids who love reading as much as they do.”