Botelle Students Participate in Kids’ Lit Quiz

As this issue of Norfolk Now goes to print, fifth and sixth grade students at Botelle School are reading their hearts out in preparation for The Kids’ Lit Quiz (KLQ) United States Finals on Friday, January 30 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). The Botelle students will be competing with 200 students in grades five through seven from 13 school districts throughout the state and one district from Indiana.

This event is sponsored by the Department of Reading and Language Arts at CCSU to promote a culture of literacy and wide reading within homes, schools and communities. Students work in teams of four to demonstrate their knowledge of children’s literature at the finals. The winning team will represent the United States in the world final.

The quiz has been around for over 20 years, but U.S. involvement is relatively new. In 2011, Dr. Catherine Kurkjian, a professor at CCSU, and Dr. Mary Beth Iacobelli, then serving as assistant superintendent in New Britain, collaborated to bring this competition to New Britain. Since then, teams from Connecticut have competed in the world finals in New Zealand, South Africa and England.

This year, CCSU will sponsor the first world final hosted in the United States. Teams and their coaches will come from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom to get a taste of Connecticut’s literary heritage. Superintendent Iacobelli is delighted that Botelle students are participating this year and hopes that this event will become a tradition for the Norfolk School District. She says, “Our students are bursting with excitement at the prospect of participating…and winning!”