Battle of the Books is a quiz-style program for young readers in grades 4 through 6. Each team of four children reads twenty books, studies, practices, and competes against other teams to answer questions in a “In what book did…?” format.
Titles are selected annually by a committee of library staff who reads the books and writes questions focusing on the who, what, and where of each book’s story and characters. By the time we are finished, we’ve written over 1,000 questions in preparation for our local and regional battles.
This year, our reading list contains books that focus on all types of interesting people, animals, cultures, and circumstances. We have books about chickens, dogs, foxes, robots, and twins who play sports, go to school, explore new frontiers, make new friends, and deal with family relationships all while coping with loss, growing up, and facing challenges with dyslexia, autism, and discrimination. Whew! That’s a lot of detail to remember, which is why it’s important for everyone to work together as a team to read and study each book prior to the competition.
Kids who are interested should contact their local public library for more information and to sign up. Individual libraries hold local battles (usually late April to early May), and then send their winning team to the regional battle to compete against other libraries from St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego counties. This year, the regional battle will be Saturday, May 20 in Gouverneur.
Visit the North Country Library System’s Battle of the Books page at http://www.bookbattle.org for the 2017 title list and coaches guide. The books for this year’s battle are available on the shelf at many libraries, through interlibrary loan, or downloadable from our Overdrive collection – grab your library card and check one out today!