Kids’ Lit Quiz 2020

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Catherine Austen

It was a real pleasure to be the Guest Quizmaster at the Ottawa heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz this year. The contest was held at Elmwood School on Tuesday, January 21st. And even in the middle of a teachers’ strike (Go teachers! Fight for your class size!), 22 teams came out to battle.

First Place Team — The Glashan PS team (First Place) with parent coach (left) and me, Catherine Austen, Guest Quizmaster (right). Kids’ Lit Quiz Ottawa 2020

The Kids’ Lit Quiz is an international annual literature competition for children aged 10-13. It’s a fun and exciting way to celebrate the love of books and make a sport of reading. Teams of 4 players sign up to compete at local heats around the world, answering literature-related questions of all types. Most teams are school-based, but there have even been home-schooled teams in some heats.

Participants in the Ottawa heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz answered more than 100 questions in ten categories over the course of three hours. (Some of them were so hard! I was glad I was asking them instead of trying to answer them.)

The official Quizmaster, Wayne Mills, who started the Kids’ Lit Quiz in 1991 and who writes all the questions for the competition, will be at the National Finals in Toronto this year. But it was nice to stand in his place (and in his shirt!) for the local heat.

Glashan Pubic School took first place in the Ottawa competition, and their team will head to the National Finals on February 1st, along with Knoxdale Public School, whose team won the tiebreaker for second place against First Avenue Public School‘s Team 2. Congratulations to all three of these top-scoring teams, and to all the other teams who came out to the Ottawa Heat. Your enthusiasm, knowledge, and love of literature are inspiring.

Second Place Team — The Knoxdale PS team (Second Place) with me, Catherine Austen, Guest Quizmaster.

Whichever team wins the Canadian Finals on February 1st will go on to compete against teams from the UK, the USA, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand in July. Good luck!

Every year, each local heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz features a Guest Author Team comprised of local authors who play for fun. This year in Ottawa, authors Kate Jaimet, Holly Bodger, and Jo Rioux came out for the quiz. (And scored very well. They had the “Classic Characters” and “Book Knowledge” categories down pat.)

It takes a lot of committed volunteers to make events like this a success. If you are interested in taking part in the Kids’ Lit Quiz next year or supporting the Quiz anywhere in Canada, check out the Kids’ Lit Quiz Canada website for more information. And check out the international Kids’ Lit Quiz website to test your knowledge of children’s literature.