Battle Over Books--Brief Description

Every April and May select schools in the south/central regions get together to compete in an event called Battle Over Books.  This competition is similar to the national reading program known as Battle of the Books, but with a few modifications to fit our local needs.  Each year students and team coach, usually a school librarian, from each participating school develop a list of books they want included in the Battle Over Books competition.  Once the list is finalized, participating students from each school try to read as many of the books  on this list so that on the day of the competition their school/team can answer the questions correctly and topple the other schools and bring home the trophy! 

Battle Over Books--Our Event This Year

This year, Circleville, Hilliard Bradley, Logan, Logan Elm, Teays Valley, and Westfall were pitted against each other for the rights to the trophy.  The students were required to read books such as; Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, The Selection by Kiera Cass, and many others.   The competition was fierce, however in the end Circleville High School (Team 1) prevailed over the others to bring home the Battle Over Books trophy.   To end the amazing event, students were rewarded with a Skype visit with author Mindy McGinnis who's Not a Drop to Drink was one of the featured titles on the book list for the competition.   

A Few Key Components Needed

•      Some type of buzzer system will be needed.  The buzzer system should consist of at least ten separate buzzers so that individual participants have a chance to buzz in Jeopardy style and answer questions to try to earn points for their team. 
•      Coach(es) write 30 or more questions, all structured in a way that the answer is always a title of a book, for at least 2 of the books chosen for the competition.  Coach(es) then submit their questions to whoever is in charge of compiling them and making a master list. 
•      Each school has two teams of 5 or less students.  Think of it as a Team A and Team B.  10 students for each school will compete in the event.  Each individual team competing for the rights to call their team, and school, champions!
•      Each game consists of two teams from preferably two different schools going head to head.  Each game consists of thirty five questions and two rounds.  The first round consists of twenty questions of their own individual question for 5 points in an alternating fashion.  The team members can work together to answer the question.  Once the team agrees on an answer the team captain reports their answer to the judges.  In the second round of the game, also known as the lightning round,  the last 15 questions will be asked.  In this round, the buzzer system is crucial since it is a free for all.  Whoever buzzes in first is the only person who has an opportunity to answer the question.  There is no team collaboration and if they get the question wrong, their team loses 3 points. 
•      The team with the most points at the end of each game wins and moves on to the next round of the competition.

How You Can Look Good In Your Neighborhood Through Battle Over Books and the Collaboration it Sparks!

Invite other Schools Districts

•      This is a great way to get students to meet other students from the surrounding region and share their love for reading. In the end, it is about the students getting a chance to talk to other students who share a passion for reading.  
•      Inviting different schools allows for you to mingle with the other school librarian coaches.  This provides a great opportunity to further collaborate with others within the profession to learn about neat projects and "goings on"  in their districts. 
•      Having different schools from other areas makes it look like a "bigger deal" to your stakeholders than just a district wide competition.  Having multiple schools compete makes the Battle Over Books event look and feel more like a serious but fun competition.

Get Your Public Library Involved

•      We are very fortunate to have a strong relationship with our public library and because of this, we were able to hold the competition at the public library for many years.  This lead to great PR for our individual schools and for the public library itself.  This also prevents the headache of trying to organize and host the event at your individual school. 
•      Getting the public library involved helps students learn about all the teen oriented events going on at their public library.  I assumed for the longest time that since my students were passionate readers that they all attended the public library frequently.  I found however this was not the case at all!   
•      Battle Over Books needs judges, a scorekeeper, and a timekeeper.  Every year our public library is able to get volunteers from the community to serve in the different positions.  I know from personal experience that sometimes it is hard to get individuals to volunteer so having our public library get involved has been a big help.
•      Seeing how budgets are always an issue, its nice having the public library get involved because they too are able to provide copies of the different titles to the students participating in the competition.  My budget only allows me to buy so many copies of each title, so when that title's two copies are checked out that book is no longer available to the other students on the team.  Having the public library involved makes for another outlet to get the titles on the list.
•      We haven't done this yet, but I would love to hold an evening or two of Battle Over Books practice at the public library.  This would be great for kids from surrounding schools competing to meet each other and to also get a feel for the event.  It also gives the public library a chance to reach out to these students for other teen oriented happenings going on at the library.  

Your Community Wants in Too  

• One of the school districts that participated in the competition this past year at the middle school level was able to get a local business to sponsor their team.  Each student that participated from the school received a free t-shirt purchased by the business tailored to the event.  It was obviously great publicity for the business by showing that they were supporting their local school district not only athletically but also academically.  The students got free t-shirts too and everyone loves a free t-shirt.
•  Invite parents, friends of the public library, and other community members to attend the competition.  This is a great way to show individuals who are not necessarily associated with the school district the educational value you and your program have to offer the district and community.  Who knows, maybe one of those individuals will say something to your superintendent and your superintendent will show up at the day of the event to root your school's team on.  :)

Nothing like a Captive Audience for an Author Visit

• Try and set up either a visit at the actual event or a skype visit by one of the author's whose book is being analyzed for the competition.  This past year we had the book Not a Drop to Drink by Ohio author Mindy McGinnis  on the list and were able to schedule a skype visit with her at the end of the event.  This was an absolute treat for the students.  They were able to ask her many questions about the book, her writing, and so forth.  By far was the most talked about thing from this year's festivities.  The author benefits from it too.  We had over 60 some students and coaches at the actual event.  Of those, probably ninety percent of them had read the book and were actively involved with the author discussion.  Finally, what books are being recommended for the competition the following year?  Yep, you guessed it...the companion book to the above one and a new book she is coming out with in the fall.  That guarantees each of the competing schools will be buying multiple copies for their library and their Battle Over Books participating students. Even though Johnny Manziel is supposedly retiring the money sign...I think this might be a good time for a last hurrah. :)  

(For a more detailed description of our Battle Over Books competition, such as what it is, how it works, how it can easily be modified to fit your local needs, what it looks like, rules & guidelines, writing questions, and so on please feel free to contact me at [email protected].)