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Research Interests
Children's literature, Boys and literacy
Qualifications
M. Ed
Biography
Wayne Mills moved to his current position at the Faculty of Education University of Auckland in 1997. Prior to this he was in the Language Department in the School of Education at Waikato University.
He specialises in children's literature and has a particular interest in boys and their literacy development.
He was chairman of Storylines from 1998-2004 and was the creator of the successful international Kids' Lit Quiz™ in New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom and China
Recent publications
- New Zealand Children's Literature (1970-2001). Bookbird vol 39 No3 2001
- World Reading Fever. China Juvenile and Children Publication Vol 28 No2 2004
- The Sport of Reading. Bookbird Vol 42 No2 2004
The Kids' Lit Quiz™
The concept for an interactive literary quiz was developed in 1991 in Hamilton, New Zealand. The quiz further developed with Paper Plus's involvement in 1997. In 2003 the quiz began to spread globally first to Great Britain then South Africa in 2004, China in 2005 and Northern Ireland in 2006. Plans are underway to have the quiz in Australia and Canada by 2008.
The quiz is an annual school-based national competition that tests the literary knowledge of readers aged 11-13. School teams, each made up of four students working collaboratively, compete in a series of regional heats. Winning teams are invited to compete in the World Final in June each year as part of the Storylines Festival of writers and illustrators.
Students are asked 100 unique questions prepared by Wayne Mills across ten random categories of literary knowledge spanning the entire scope of children's books and authors from contemporary to modern. Children are not given the categories in advance.
