Sixth-grader from Kabile wins Latvia’s reading championship

Sixth-grader Emīls Trenmors from Kabile has won this year’s reading champion title in Latvia’s Loud Reading Competition, LSM reports. The contest, organised by the National Library of Latvia, drew pupils from 269 schools.

Trenmors, who studies at Vilis Pludons Kuldīga Secondary School, said he was surprised by the win. He has also been named a reading ambassador for a year and will serve as the National Library of Latvia’s children’s director, taking on various representative duties.

His family encouraged his love of books, and he began reading at the age of four. For the competition, he and his teacher, Daiga Strupule-Buka, chose an excerpt from British author David Walliams’s book Bad Dad.

Strupule-Buka praised Trenmors’s diction, intonation and ability to bring different characters to life. One of his prizes, a collection of books from the Children’s, Youth and Parents’ Jury programme, has gone to the school library.

The National Library’s Loud Reading Competition is part of its Restart Reading public engagement initiative. It was held for the ninth time this year.