Looking for a recommendation for a great book?  Ask our Year 8 Readers Cup team who recently read six books in the lead up to the Sunshine Coast Regional Readers Cup Competition. Setting out on a bit of a readers marathon in preparation for the competition, our students Josiah Monos, Laura Coumi, Charlie Bidgood and Amelia Siddans each read six books. A total of 1330 pages of characters, plots and details that were enjoyed and perused with some scrutiny in preparation for an evening of intense competition. Together with 20 other teams from colleges and high schools across the region, the enthusiastic GCC team took up the challenge of an exciting evening of tough questions. Our students competed well in the first round pitted against other teams and the buzzer that gave just 20 seconds for teams to confer and agree on each answer. Although our GCC team didn’t qualify for a place in the final, it was certainly evident that they enjoyed the evening competing with great team skills and considerable camaraderie. The students particularly enjoyed listening to the guest author Richard Yaxley from Brisbane who regaled them with stories of his youth and shared about the inspiration for his stories and also the specific details of his journey to writing ‘This is my song’ one of the books read by students for the competition.

Richard Yaxley was the winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2018 Prize for Young Adult Literature. Richard’s words of advice for anyone aspiring to be a writer are worth noting:

1. Read, read, read and then read!
2. Read widely – be broad in what you explore in terms of types of stories/books
3. Take up reading biographies and other types of non-fiction to broaden your concept of the world and people in it
4. Write, write and write – as much as possible
5. Be open to ‘story’ – listen out for them, go looking for them and be receptive to what you might be called to write about.

A few top favourite books from the competition, include:

The competition was a wonderful way to celebrate the joy of reading and a great opportunity to connect with others who love to read and who are excited to talk about it. The next Regional Readers Cup Competition will be for Year 9 on 29 August. The final competition for the year will be for Year 7 and will be held on 24 October.