Battle of the Books reconvenes after hiatus

Mar. 7—LENOIR — Student teams at Sawmills Elementary and William Lenoir Middle schools earned literary bragging rights Tuesday morning.

Students from Caldwell County elementary and middle schools gathered at Living Hope Church in Lenoir to compete in the 2023 N.C. Battle of the Books. This competition has not been held for the past three years due to COVID-19 shutdowns and restrictions.

The N.C. Battle of the Books is a friendly academic competition launched by the N.C. School Library Media Association (NCSLMA) to encourage kids to read a variety of books.

Ten elementary school teams and five middle school teams competed for first prize in various rooms at Living Hope Church, located at 1890 Connelly Springs Rd., Lenoir.

The elementary school teams had to read 15 chapter books, such as "A Nest for Celeste" by Henry Cole; "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan; and "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone.

The middle school teams had to read 16 books, such as "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai (Young Readers Edition with Patricia McCormick); "A Night Divided" by Jennifer A. Nielsen; and "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewel Parker Rhodes.

During each round, a moderator would say one student's name, read the question, then say the student's name again. At that point, the student had 20 seconds to give an answer and was allowed to confer with their teammates.

The moderator's questions ranged from very specific to vague, and the correct answer (worth three points) had to include both the title of the book and the author's name.

After five rounds for the middle schools and 13 rounds for the elementary schools, the first, second, and third place winners of each group were recognized with colorful trophies at an award ceremony.

For the elementary schools, the Granite Falls Elementary team won third place, Lower Creek Elementary team won second place, and Sawmills Elementary team won first place. The students from Sawmill's team will go on to compete at the Region 7 competition on Thursday, April 27 at New Life Baptist Church in Lenoir.

For the middle schools, Gamewell Middle School won third place, Granite Falls Middle School won second place, and William Lenoir Middle School won first place.

"I want to say how proud I am of the work you guys have done," said Dr. Don Phipps, superintendent of Caldwell County Schools, during the middle school award ceremony. "The number of books you had to read, and not just getting through the book, but to be able to digest it and remember it and do the recall and be able to answer questions, is just incredible ... It's a wonderful experience, but it's also something that was very difficult for you all to do, and we have an opportunity now to reward you.

"I think it's important that the Caldwell County Schools supports and endorses an activity like this," he continued. "It certainly is academic in nature, but I think it does a lot more for you than just the academic preparation. On behalf of our school board members, we want to say congratulations to you all."

When asked why they wanted to participate in Battle of the Books this year, a number of middle school students said they enjoy reading and wanted the opportunity to challenge themselves by reading new books, meeting new friends, and competing with their peers.

"Books have always interested me, as well as the pursuit of knowledge, so I felt this was a good way to find it," said William Lenoir Middle School sixth grader Gabby Rivera.

Seventh grader Holden Lawrence, also from William Lenoir Middle School, said, "I thought it [was] cool that you could do a sport with reading."

"I really like reading, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do that," said Gamewell Middle School sixth grader Anita Thao. "I've never done this before, so it's something new and I wanted to try it. It's really fun, to be honest, with all these team members. I just really enjoy it."

"I've done this for several years, but we didn't get to do it during COVID," said Monica O'Quinn, Battle of the Books coach and the Digital Learning and Media specialist at William Lenoir Middle School. "This is our first year back, and we're very excited. I'm really proud of them; they did a great job. I'm really happy that we can do this again."

North Carolina's Battle of the Books can be traced back to a public radio program in Chicago in the 1940s originated by Ruth Harshaw. Librarians exposed to the original show reconstructed the game to encourage reading today.

Michael Leonard, an Illinois native, first introduced the contest in Onslow County when he accepted the position of Children's Librarian for the Onslow County Public Library. His rationale for placing it at the sixth grade level was the dearth of activities in the public library and in the public schools for this aged child. In 1981, Onslow County Public Library sponsored the first North Carolina Battle of the Books contest for sixth graders.

The North Carolina Association of School Librarians assumed sponsorship of Battle of the Books in 1991. In 2000, the North Carolina School Library Media Association (NCSLMA) became a sponsor of Battle of the Books, and independent schools became a region for competition. The first state competition of Battle of the Books was held in 2001-2002.

NCSLMA coordinates the program on a statewide basis.

In 2013, the NCSLMA Executive Board agreed to partner with the N.C. Association for Scholastic Activities (NCASA). NCASA member schools can now add points toward the Middle School Cup for participation in Battle of the Books.

For more information, visit https://ncslma.wildapricot.org.