Durban - Watch out for the Ama Boeke Boeke. The quartet of avid readers from Manor Gardens Primary School will be the fourth team since 2011 to represent South Africa at the annual world Kids’ Lit Quiz for 10 to 13-year-old learners.
Hosting the July final, which is a culmination of national and regional quizzes throughout Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and the US, will be quiz founder Wayne Mills. He “reads enough books to write several thousand questions each year”, according to the quiz web site.
Manor Gardens’ team won the world event in 2011 and is one of two South African schools to have come home with the trophy, the others being Roedean and St John’s, both in Johannesburg.
The Durban school’s involvement started when a class was invited to a regional competition at another school.
“They said ‘come along’. I just wondered whether our kids were going to sit still for two hours,” said media centre teacher Isobel Sobey, under whose eye the quiz has taken place over the years.
They ended up participating and came second.
“We were then invited to the national championships in Johannesburg three days later,” she said.
They went.
Reading is something of a ritual at Manor Gardens, a small state school at the bottom of the inland slope of the hill dominated by UKZN’s Howard College campus tower.
“We have ‘Drop Everything and Read’ moments for half an hour after break. It calms everyone down.
“We also have an early morning book club,” said Sobey.
References from literature are also frequently woven into subject lessons, which for teachers means having to work a bit harder.
While in Grades 1 to 3, children visit the reading room every day and may choose two new books.
“Each takes out 200 to 300 books in their first year of school, our children are swamped in literature and books,” said Sobey.
As competition time approaches, pub quiz “fundi” Linda Algie always offers a helping hand.
Sobey believes book reading has a future in spite of the challenges posed by the digital world.
“Research shows that while learning to read, you need to understand a book is a process. You work through it. This is not so with digital,” she said.
Sobey pointed out that one could not use technology without being able to read.
“You must understand the language of technology. If you don’t have reading, everything is more difficult,” she said.
Sobey, who will retire at the end of this term but plans to travel with the team to the World Finals, stressed the importance of teaching reading to understand, not merely as a chore.
She said it helped that many pupils at the school came from families that valued reading, had their parents read to them and watched their parents read.
“Story-time is a very warm and friendly time. It’s when children feel loved and accepted,” Sobey said.
She said she wished fathers would read more to their children because the idea that boys don’t read is often learned behaviour from their fathers.
“Kids copy their parents’ behaviour.”
There are those who have difficulties getting into reading, added Sobey, whose challenge is always to find a book a child can get hooked into.
That applies equally to those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“If they have the book that hooks, they will read it and it will involve more effort to pull them away from it!” Sobey stressed.
She believes the controversial medication route has its place, provided the reason for the child needing it is examined and it is not just handed out.
The four members of this year’s Ama Boeke Boeke team – all Grade 7 learners – spoke about their love of reading.
“I like that it sends me into a different world and that it is effortless. You just read and get away from everything,” said Tia Robbertze.
For Lily-Rose Platter it’s also a journey into another realm, especially if life around one becomes depressing.
“You can become someone else and in any world you wish to be part of,” she said.
Helena Hattingh said she loved reading, “because there’s so much to read.
“You get sucked in. You forget to do your homework because you’re so immersed.”
Anjini Naicker said reading relaxed her mind. “It’s so comforting. You feel you are just there with the characters.”
They are heading for New Zealand at the same time as the country, together with Australia, hosts the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup, so airfares and accommodation will not be at low season rates.
Anyone wishing to contribute to their costs can do so by visiting https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/manor-gardens-primary-school-kids-lit-quiz-team-5527800044227318812.
The Independent on Saturday