Participants in the competition were Miral Shikha (Kranich-Gymnasium), Jonas Müller (Realschule Gebhardshagen), Henry Klingebiel (Gymnasium Salzgitter-Bad), Luka Zivkovic (Realschule Salzgitter-Bad) and Mila Schmidt (Gymnasium am Fredenberg).
The first round began with three-minute text passages from children's and youth books of their own choice. The children presented: "Forever Alaska" by Anna Woltz, "Erebos" by Ursula Poznanski, "Thieves in Olympus" by Percy Jackson, "Stranger Things" by Eddie Munso and "Maja and Motte" by Antje Szillat. The children vividly presented their favorites, which dealt with adventure, school and friendship, among other things.
After a break with refreshing drinks, cookies and snacks, the pupils then had to prove their reading skills with a text that was unknown to them. The jury, consisting of last year's winner Jenke Niehuis, Meike Buthmann, team leader of the Lebenstedt City Library, Dennis Marggraf from the Salzgitter-Bad City Library team and Maren Landwehr from the Press and Public Relations Department of the City of Salzgitter, listened attentively to the speakers. Reading technique, text selection and interpretation were evaluated. There was also applause from the audience afterwards.
"You all did a great job reading aloud," said Meike Buthmann before the award ceremony. The children can be proud of themselves because they presented their books and the unknown text passages very well.
This was also emphasized by Julia Sonnemann, who organized the reading competition. "You are winners in your schools and have presented your enthusiasm for reading and the stories clearly." Even during the class competitions, the children got to know their classmates' favorite reads and immersed themselves in adventures and exciting or fantastic stories. "That's what makes this competition so valuable," says Julia Sonnemann.
Nevertheless, a winner is celebrated at the end of the competition. This year, it was Henry Klingebiel who qualified for the reading competition at district level. True to the motto "Whoever reads, wins", all participants received due applause from the audience, a certificate and a book prize at the end.
Further information:
The German Book Trade's reading competition is one of the largest nationwide school competitions. Around 600,000 pupils take part every year. All sixth grade classes can take part. Everyone is invited to present their favorite book and read from it. The reading competition offers the opportunity to present your own favorite story and discover lots of new books. Whether it's suspense, entertainment or knowledge - read whatever you like.
The reading competition has been organized every year since 1959 by the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels in cooperation with bookshops, libraries, schools and cultural institutions and this year was the 67th edition. It starts at schools in October and runs through several regional and state-wide stages until the national final in June.