The district decision of the 67th reading competition of the German book trade took place last Friday in the Idar-Oberstein public library. The event was organized by the town's youth welfare office and the Schulz-Ebrecht bookshop. After being welcomed by Sebastian Herzig from the town youth welfare office, the eight school winners from the district stepped up to the microphone one after the other and gave an impressive demonstration of their reading talent. They fought an extremely exciting neck-and-neck race and did not make it easy for the jury. In view of the strong performances, the judges - library director Sandra Ley, Kerstin Hub, teacher at Niederbrombach elementary school, Heike Schwarm, principal of Idarbachtal elementary school, and last year's winner Isabella Schneider - decided to send three participants into the play-off.
In the play-off, the participants then had to recite a passage from the third-party text "Rocky Winterfeld - Ziemlich neben der Spur" by author Marie Hüttner. While the jury withdrew to deliberate, Idar-Oberstein singer-songwriter Greta Kliebisch took over the microphone and shortened the waiting time for the visitors. With her selection of current songs, she created an atmospheric mood and delighted the audience. The jury then announced their decision: Marlene Scherer was able to win the jump-off. She impressed with an expressive and confident reading performance. Her chosen text was taken from the book "Keeper of the Lost Cities - The Fire" by Shannon Messenger. District winner Marlene Scherer will now go to the district final in Trier, followed by the competition at state level and the national final with the 16 state winners in June.