Over 200 elementary and middle school students recently competed in the annual school district Battle of the Books.
The district championships were held March 11 at Timberline Secondary School.
Battle of the Books began as a creative concept to encourage students to read quality fiction books. While encouraging literacy, this annual competition has also become a proud tradition within the school district.
Quadra’s teams of Kira Abram-Veloso, Rowan Gruger-Cowper, and Sofia McPhee won the Grade 3 category and Elliott Kinsey, Laura Nicoll, and Nick Wunsch won the grade 4 category. École Willow Point’s team of Olivia Fagan, Emma Knight, and Avery Sorensen won the Grade 5 category and The Book Bandits, from École Phoenix Middle School won the grade 6 category (these students cannot be named due to privacy requests).
Teams of three students from participating schools read selected novels and compete in question-and-answer competitions to test their knowledge on the material they read.
Being declared Battle of the Books champions is no easy feat with teams having to compete and win their school competition, a zone playoff against neighbouring schools, and then the district competition against the other zone winners.
In each competition, teams were asked 30 questions and expected to give an answer in 20 seconds with the use of answer cards.
Guest moderator and former teacher from Cedar Elementary, Tom Kennedy asked the questions in the district competition.
The zone and district winners were awarded prizes donated by Coho Books and Strathcona Gardens. School District 72 would like to thank its teacher-librarians for organizing the annual event.