Fiction Addiction from Whanganui High School win inaugural Manawatu Readers Cup

Fiction Addiction from left to right: Calum Sinclair, Benjamin White, Laura Mackintosh and Toni Adams. Photo / Supplied

Whanganui High School's Fiction Addiction have won the inaugural Manawatu Readers Cup.

They scored 9.5/10 on the final book 1918: Broken Poppies by Des Hunt to beat Freyberg High School's Reading Salamanders by one nail-biting point.

The Manawatu Readers Cup is a competition for Year 9 students in which teams of four, plus one reserve, read six books and then work as a team to answer quiz-style questions.

The event has been running in Auckland for the past couple of years, this was its first venture south where 14 teams participated in the Fielding Civic Theatre.

Head of English at Whanganui High School Vicki Kasner said that the competition was so new to the region that for a long time, she was not even aware of it.

"The lovely thing about this is that it was student driven, young Calum, he heard about it through friends and he decided to get a team together himself," Kasner said.

"It's lovely to hear that kind of initiative coming from a year nine student."

The winning team consisted of Calum Sinclair, Benjamin White, Laura Mackintosh and Toni Adams.

As well as Broken Poppies, students were required to read Turtles all the way Down, Snow White, The Bone Sparrow, The Dawn Ride and The Traitor and the Thief.

Kasner said that the competition was a wonderful idea.

"It's getting these students to read the most recently published young adult fiction and that's exciting for them.

"They have a love of reading, this challenges them to read a wide variety and to work collaboratively."

Reading and literacy Manawatū - or ReaLM was the organiser of the event. It is currently having a cup engraved which will be handed over to the winning team soon.

Kasner said that now she is aware of the competition, Whanganui High School would be looking at getting more involved next year.

"But for this year, I'm very impressed, what a lovely group of intelligent and articulate students."