Battle of the Books is the just-as-serious elementary school version of the War on 24
ST. MARYS — The drama of the moment was too much to bear, and the St. Marys Grade School cafeteria quickly filled up with a cacophony of hushed whispers and nervous anticipation.
The Silver Lake Elementary Book Bombers and the Rossville Grade School Bookworms were neck-and-neck in the final round of the Battle of the Books — and neither team was letting up.
If their older brothers and sisters each fall, winter and spring fight valiantly for bragging rights in their athletic competitions, so too would these fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders look for victory in the elementary theater of the War on 24.
Battle of the Books gets students reading
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The same book trophy remained at stake, but each question librarian and moderator Shawna Kincaid ratcheted up the tension.
In a Battle of the Books, two teams, made up of four to six students each, go head-to-head, taking turns answering 20 questions about a set list of books to have read beforehand.
Kansas schools that participate typically use books from the list of William Allen White Children's Book Awards and questions put together by Auburn-Washburn USD 437 school librarians.
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The questions involve specific details and passages from hundreds of pages in dozens of books from the award list, and the competing children probe their memories to remember which books the details come from.
A team can earn a total of 10 points each question, if they can answer the question with the name of the book and the author. Should they answer with an incorrect book name, the opposing team has a chance to "steal" those points.
Silver Lake Elementary School librarian Carrie Podlena had started an intra-school Battle of the Books when she started there five years ago after seeing a similar competition at Auburn-Washburn USD 437 elementary schools.
She later got in touch with Kincaid, the elementary school librarian for Rossville and St. Marys, to see about setting up a friendly competition between the neighboring towns' schools.
"It motivates kids to read," Podlena said. "I already have kids who are reading next year's books just so they can get on the Battle of the Books team for next year."
Each school has various teams, but those teams competed against each other earlier in April to determine which one would have the honor of representing their respective schools in the War on 24 competition.
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Battle of the Books is such an exciting motivator for students that they willingly give up a lot of their free time at school to practice for the competition. At Kincaid's schools, her teams have given up one of their lunch periods every week "just to come in and talk about books."
"They're even inspiring the younger kids, as they're coming up, to also be a part of it," Kincaid said.
This year's War on 24 winner was a repeat from last Battle of the Books
At Silver Lake, Podlena's students had been meeting every Monday before school for the past three months to hone their reading recall.
They had been keen to keep the trophy — which Kincaid had created for the inaugural War on 24 Battle of the Books — their older friends had won in 2019, the last time the schools were able to host the interschool competition.
But for all their preparation, little could have prepared the Silver Lake Book Bombers for the toughest part of Wednesday's final competition — the quote questions.
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Out of the 20 questions asked each round, the last four are quotes. Those are generally more challenging for the kids, the librarians said, because they tend to be lighter on specific details that would allow the teams to easily place which book they come from.
The cafeteria full of students and teachers from the three schools watched in anticipation Wednesday afternoon as the students got to the last four questions.
All three of the teams — the Rossville Bookworms, Silver Lake Book Bombers and St. Marys Cadjle (named after the first letter of each team member's name) — had given it their best, but the trophy winner would come down to which of Rossville or Silver Lake could get their last four questions right.
On the 17th question, Rossville gave their first incorrect answer of the round, and with Silver Lake stealing those points, the Book Bombers only had to hold steady for the last few questions to reclaim the trophy.
"It took a lot of preparation," said sixth-grader Caleb Heier. "Every Monday morning at 7 o'clock."
After the competition, the team of sixth-graders reveled in their War on 24 title with the classmates who had traveled with them to cheer them on. They stopped at Casey's on the short bus ride home for a quick treat, but not before talking about how next year's team could continue the momentum.
"Stay calm, and don't blurt out the answers like us," said sixth-grader Sawyer Hermesch.
Even beyond the academics and excitement for reading, their librarian and coach Podlena said students take away another valuable lesson from the Battle of the Books — camaraderie.
"You could see how much they enjoyed being on a team together and supporting each other," Podlena said.
Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Elementary schools' Battle of the Books gets students reading
