Battle of the Books is a voluntary reading program that students in grades 4-6 can join. Forming teams of 4 or less, students must read the 12 designated novels for the Battle year. Then in January, the teams begin to battle it out until we reach one school Battle winner! That winning team moves on to battle against other teams within the district. These battles occur online using Instant Messenger in February. Eventually one team is crowned the district Battle winner.
For people not familiar with the program, a Battle is where each team is asked a series of questions about any of the 12 required books. If the team can identify the correct title of the book which answers the question, they earn 2 points. The team with the most points earned after a 10 question battle, wins!
Battle of the Books is a fun way to get connected with other students in the school. It doesn’t cost any money and it’s easy to join. Just come to the library, ask for the pink Battle form, fill it out, turn it in and start reading. Students can have any combination of team members, whether they are boy and girl teams, combination grade level team (4th and 5th graders for example), or even family member teams. We have had brother sister teams in the past! The only rule is there is a maximum of 4 people per team.
We have 2 copies of each battle book this year. They are checked out first come, first served. I don’t do reserves, and you can’t renew a book. Once you are on a team, stop by my desk and check out a book. I often get asked how many of the books should you read. My standard is always, “All of them!” However, that can happen in a variety of ways. Some teams have everyone read every book. Others divide the titles up and have different members read certain books. Whatever way you choose to read the books is up to your team. You do need to know that the more members of a team who have read all the books equals the more people who might remember the one detail you need to answer a question!
All of the books are in the King County Library System, will be at our Scholastic Book Fair in October during the student/teacher/parent conferences and can be found easily at any book store.
All students in grades 4-6 will hear more about the program during their library class in the next 2 weeks. Have fun reading! Mrs. Hembree