Northern primary schools coordinator Anne Donnelly said 15 schools participated in the challenge this year.

“For the past couple of years it has been held at Summerdale Primary because we now have 15 schools from around the North participating,” she said.

“This year 601 students participated at a school level in Readers’ Cup

“Our goals for Readers’ Cup are to encourage readers, especially our good readers. To get them to read different authors, to work together and cooperate and to think more deeply about books.

“The competition has grown from three or four schools to the current 15.”

Schools have an in-school competition, where teams of six children from grade 5 and 6 are given six weeks to read six books. 

Westbury Primary School students Amy Taylor and Ruby Geach said they were overwhelmed and excited about winning.

“I think it’s really fun to read the books and meet the people from different schools … it’s quite fun,” Ruby said.

Books this year included The Amazing Bike Ride, Bully on the Bus, War Horse, Just a Dog, Figgy in the World, and Silly Billy. 

Each team then had to prepare a creative response.

“You can make up a play, or a diorama, or a dance, and then you present it to all the schools. We did a play to Silly Billy,” Amy said.

Glen Dhu Primary placed second, and Longford Primary placed third.