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Every year around this time New Zealand Quizmaster the inexhaustible Wayne Mills arrives for the start of the UK heats of the Kids' Lit Quiz  - and he runs an amazing 18 heats in under 4 weeks.  The first heat this year was a new one in East Midlands, and today it will be the turn of the 8th UK heat at Yorkshire's King James School, Knaresborough.

KLQ Quizmaster Wayne Mills awarded  Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit

KLQ is a competition for children aged 10-13 with ten rounds of questions each with a different theme and a opportunity for the teams to choose one round as their joker (double points)  all the questions are book related and vary in difficulty.

Wayne writes all the questions himself, and when you consider there are 100 questions in each heat, it is quite a feat, as he never asks a question unless he has read the book!


In school teams of four and a max of two teams per school, they compete against other schools in their region. I am always amazed by what the teams can answer and having been on an author team myself many times, it can be taxing.  


I think the young competitors often surprise themselves by what they know, but most of all they have a great time.  I love having the chance to chat to the teams before it starts and during the break, when the competitors have a chance to buy books and come to get them signed by the authors who attend the quiz.


Wayne offers spot prizes for teams or for individual competitors, and there are also longer questions in between rounds, sometimes taken from the more difficult World Final questions of the year before.

The teams are often very close in points and it is hard to describe the level of enthusiasm for the quiz and the excitement in the room.  Teams of authors, teachers and librarians often compete for the fun of it, and it can become quite competitive!

Winning team at  KLQ NE - Hexham Middle School A

This year I have been on two author teams, in Newcastle NE England heat which was once again organised by Trevor and Diane.

With fellow Author's team member Lucy Coats

Lucy Coats and I seconded the very knowledgeable Steve onto our team.
Steve was running the bookshop for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books.
After a very competitive quiz we were beaten by the librarians ... by half a mark!


I was also delighted to be at the East of Scotland Heat which was held at Liberton High School in Edinburgh, organised by their excellent librarian, Christine Babbs.