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ixth graders Agus, Rizki and Ilyas of the Roemah Pustaka community library in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, were arguing about whether their nasi tumpeng (decorated corn-shaped yellow rice) looked more like a scarecrow or a soldier.

'€œIt'€™s a scarecrow,'€ Agus told The Jakarta Post during the Community Library Olympiad at the Transportation Museum, TMII theme park, East Jakarta, on Sunday.

'€œNo, it'€™s actually a soldier,'€ said the other two.

'€œHow so?'€ asked Agus.

'€œBecause the half-cut tomato on top is the soldier'€™s helmet and the red chili is the rifle,'€ said Ilyas.

Within seconds, they agreed that their creation, which took part in the decorated nasi tumpeng competition, was an Indonesian soldier.

Meanwhile, Tasya, 11, a member of the Warasaki Reading Room in Leuwiliang, Bogor, showed off her kutubaru kebaya made of plastic and adorned with paper wings, after participating in a fashion show.

'€œI am an eagle princess,'€ she said, pointing out that the creation was inspired by the country'€™s symbol, Garuda, an imaginary bird believed to be adapted from the Javanese eagle.

Decorating nasi tumpeng and a fashion show using recycled materials were among the competitions held during the fifth Reading Room Olympiad, initiated by 1001buku, a social group established in 2002 that arranges donations of books to community libraries.

Nearly 300 children representing 35 community libraries in Greater Jakarta and several other cities in Java and South Sulawesi participated in various competitions, including drawing, nusantara-themed collage-making and a marathon quiz.

In the collage-making, participants showed off their knowledge of Indonesian geography and during the marathon quiz, each team was challenged to answer questions regarding Indonesia, its history and culture.

'€œThis year we involved libraries from other cities outside Greater Jakarta,'€ 1001buku chairwoman Dwi Andayani said.

The founder of the Madani reading room in Sidrap, South Sulawesi, Zulkifli Surahmat, said he had to raise funds through various means to be able to join the olympiad.

'€œI hope from this experience my two members will be able to spread the reading spirit back home and continue to manage the library,'€ he said.

Sidik Budiyanto, a storyteller and the founder of the DSAK reading room in Cakung, East Jakarta, acknowledged that managing a community library was never easy.

'€œI established the library in 2004 and have been through ups and downs. Children come and go, but at the moment I have 30 active members,'€ he told the Post.

Sidik encouraged the children to love books through various fun games and prizes.

'€œFor instance, I promised to give away pencils to those who can summarize a reading. Even if their summary was incorrect, I would still give the prize anyway,'€ he said, saying that members had started to grow fond of books.

'€œI didn'€™t even have to explain the rule of the game anymore. I just put out a pile of readings, ranging from books to children magazines, and they would just read them,'€ he said.

A member of the DSAK reading room, Aufa, 11, a sixth grader, boasted of his fondness for science books.

'€œI love anything about science,'€ he said, adding that, '€œI want to be professor in the future.'€

Meanwhile, another member, Talita Difa, said she preferred books with pictures.

'€œI like story books like comic books or Bobo [a children'€™s magazine],'€ she said.