Super speller from Ecole St. Germaine

Julie Thiessen acknowledges that she is pretty indiscriminate when it comes to reading.

It doesn’t matter if the words are on a cereal box or in one of her favourite Gordon Korman novels, they’re stored in her memory. And her word power has come in handy of late.

The Grade 7 student from Ecole St. Germaine, who lives in River Park South, is one of 12 kids from across the country competing this week to become Canada’s first Super Speller.

Promoted as a national spelling bee for students 12-and-under, the competition is taking place Oct. 6-10 at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S. and will air during prime time on CBC television next spring.

“She has always been a very strong speller. She can outspell her parents, especially me,” said Thiessen’s mom, Joyce.

“I remember in Grade 5 she was already spelling many words from a Grade 10 level.”

In an effort to take full advantage of her opportunity, Thiessen gave up her paper route delivering The Lance to focus on the competition.

“I am studying a list of the 150 most commonly misspelled words in the English language,” Thiessen said.

“I study those and than my mom quizzes me on them. I don’t study the dictionary because it is just too boring.”

Thiessen had to successfully complete the first three rounds of the competition to make it to the final. First she qualified in a timed round on the computer, advanced in the spelldown at the Manitoba Museum and then beat out the last three Manitoba competitors at the regional competition held Sept. 25 in Toronto.

“It was a lot of fun, but it was also hard because I was becoming friends with everyone there and it was hard to see other people get out,” Julie said.

In the final, Thiessen will be competing in a three-round format featuring Straight Spell, Super Spell and Scramble challenges.

Straight Spell is comparable to the spelling bee most people are familiar with. Competitors receive a word and must spell it correctly. The Super Spell is a speed round in which competitors must spell as many correct words as possible in 40 seconds.

New to the finals is the Scramble challenge in which competitors are given a category, a grouping of letters and must buzz in when they have the correct answer.

“I think I will do the best in the Super Spell because that was the round that I ended up coming from behind to win in the last competition,” Thiessen said.

Halifax Film is producing the competition and is flying the Thiessen family out for the finals. In Nova Scotia, Thiessen and the other competitors will meet with an author and be shown around the city of Wolfville.

“I am really looking forward to meeting someone from every region and making friends with everybody,” Thiessen said.

Cheryl Hassen, the show’s executive producer, says she expects the atmosphere to be “super-charged” and couldn’t be happier with the type of competitors the show has attracted.

“The kids are great. I can’t say that enough. They are really competitive, great spellers and are all well-rounded kids. They can think on their feet and are very interesting,” Hassen said.

The winner of Canada’s first Super Speller will win a Registered Education Savings Plan worth $20,000 courtesy of Egg Farmers of Canada, a laptop computer from Acadia University and a unique pewter trophy designed by Nova Scotia’s Valerie Stone.