KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Library Service (JLS) on Thursday crowned five champions in the 2025 National Reading Competition.

They are St Ann’s Mia-Isabel Walker (six to eight age group), St Elizabeth’s Ladonia Rowe (nine to 11 age group), Manchester’s Kristen Lewis (12 to 14 age group), St Mary’s Sherene Ramdon (15 to 20 age group), and St James’ Henrietta Richards (21 and older age group), who is also the overall winner.

The awards ceremony, which was held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, honoured the champions, runners-up and sectional winners with a range of prizes, including cash awards, trophies, books, tablet computers, and complimentary hotel stays.

JLS Director General, Maureen Thompson, noted that a record 5,600 readers participated in the competition’s 37th staging this year.

“This exceeded our target. We had a target of 4,000, but the team islandwide worked very hard. That was a 79 per cent increase over 3,133 readers that we had registered last year,” she said.

The St Mary Library Network accounted for the largest number of entrants, registering 868 participants.

“We remain very grateful to all our sponsors and donors whose tangible investments… continue to enable us to administer the competition each year. It’s a testament of their support for reading and literacy,” the director general stated.

Noting that this year’s competition was held under the theme “Keep Reading Alive in 2025”, Thompson said the JLS welcomed the planned reintroduction of reading as a timetabled subject for grades one to three at the primary level.

During the awards presentations, Portland parish champion in the six to eight age category, Gabrielle Henry, received the sectional prize for Best Letter.

St Elizabeth parish champion, Ladonia Rowe, distinguished herself in the nine to 11 age category by securing sectional prizes for both Best Story Ending and Best Book Review.

In the 12 to 14 age category, sectional prizes were awarded to Kristen Lewis of Manchester for Best Story Ending, and Ziandra Tabannor of St Mary for Best Book Review.

Sectional prizes for Best Poetry Analysis were awarded to Sherene Ramdon of St Mary (15 to 20 age category) and Henrietta Richards of St James (21 and over).

Prizes for Best Book Review were awarded to D’Jeane Walters of St Ann (15 to 20 age category) and Richards.

Meanwhile, St Thomas parish champion, Shaenalee Smith (nine to 11), Portland parish champion, Zamani Madson (12 to 14), Trelawny parish champion, Shaunti Reid (15 to 20), and St Mary parish champion, Naaliyah Noyan (21 and over), won the VM Foundation’s Financial Literacy Challenge in their respective age groups.

As a flagship initiative of the JLS, the National Reading Competition aims to foster a strong culture of reading and support the country’s literacy goals.

— JIS