He’ll be the youngest contestant, and the Illawarra’s only representative, on this year’s reality show hosted by Grant Denyer and Chrissie Swan for the WIN network.

Quinn is one of 36 children aged from eight to 13 who will compete in a series of word-related games and challenges, some of which include spelling words like emoticon, antecedent and rapacious to advance through to the next round.

“I didn’t get overly excited when I heard that I was actually going in,” he said.

The vibrant youngster admitted he’d forgotten all about the fact he’d be on TV after many tedious interviews and testing during the casting process.

But that all changed once under the bright lights of the studio and said he even became a little starstruck when meeting the famous hosts.

Apart from making new friends, the biggest things Quinn likes about being on the show was “the adventure and the challenge, two things I like to do”.

A love for words has stemmed from a love for books, something Quinn’s been doing longer than most kids his age.

His mother Shane was amazed her son could read street signs as a toddler and could read books before he started kindergarten.

“It’s been quite phenomenal,” she said. “Like in pre-school the kids would say ‘read this book to me’, it was amazing.

Shane never consciously pushed her child to read more but found he was always very engaged in books so encouraged his passion.

“We always try and find the balance between something that keeps him engaged and is not made for 13-year-olds, so we try and find appropriate books that can do that,” she said.

Some books, like the Harry Potter series, are still a bit scary for the young word-smith to read but that doesn’t stop him having a go.

Quinn pulled down some of his favourite books from the family’s lounge-room shelves including a Christopher Paolini series of fantasy novels around 860 pages each, all without pictures. It puts many adults to shame.

When he’s not reading Quinn is playing video games or dreaming of becoming a scientist, because mixing chemicals together always looks cool in cartoons.

The Great Australian Spelling Bee, airing from Sunday July 17 at 6:30pm on WIN.

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