On Wednesday 2 August, 10 students from both Year 9 and 10 volunteered to compete in the 2023 Readers Cup. The competition consisted of 12 teams from local schools and 117 teams statewide. The Readers Cup is a state wide competition organised by the Queensland Branch of the Childrens Book Council Australia for young readers to get together and read a set of books. The competition has been running for 6 years in the WideBay, and in 2020 a state final was introduced for the winners of the local tournament.

This year the books chosen were “We Who Hunt the Hollow”, “The Stand In”, “Green Rising” and the favourite of all “I Must Betray You”. Both teams did their very best to answer the questions given and ended with some very close scores, with St Lukes taking the win with 79.5 points. Our Shalom Teams finished 6th and 11th overall against this tough competition.

On behalf of all the students who competed I would like to say a very big thank you to Kepnock State High School for organising the event to be held at there school, as well as supplying snacks and lunch. I would also like to thank Ms Davis and Mrs Parton for lending us their time and effort to coach both teams and travel with us on the day. And lastly, I would like to give a huge thank you to Mrs Wooldridge for organising Shalom to compete and being our biggest supporter. And of course, I wouldn’t be saying this without the wonderful students who volunteered their time to join in this amazing opportunity.

Congratulations to both teams (Addison L, Lara M, Joann J, Matilda H, Emily P, Sophie W, Sophie N, Hannah P, Callum M and Noah K) for being a part of this story.

Written by,
Addison L
Year 10 Student

Mrs Wendy Davis
Senior English & Performing Arts
wendy_davis@shalomcollege.com