Lincoln School Students Win Battle of the Books

Caldwell-West Caldwell fourth-graders went head-to-head on Feb. 12, as they competed in the annual Battle of the Books competition with Lincoln School, Caldwell earning first place in this year's national reading motivation and comprehension program that is designed to promote academic excellence, encouraging and recognizing students who enjoy reading, broaden reading interests and increase reading comprehension.

Books for the competition are chosen and questions are written by local elementary school media specialists. Students read the books, discuss them, quiz each other on the contents and then compete in teams to correctly answer questions based on the books in a "quiz show" format. After winning a one-day voluntary competition at their respective elementary schools, the winning team from each school competes for the championship. As last year's champion, Washington Elementary School hosted the competition.

"To remember and comprehend the details within these books truly takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the children," Lincoln School Media Specialist Doreen Golembeski said.  "The students work hard at learning the plot, characters and details of these books. I am always so impressed by the time and energy that they willingly put into reading and understanding the books."

The original idea for Battle of the Books came from a radio program sponsored by the Chicago Public Library in the early 1940s. Joanne Kelly, a student participant in the radio show, became a school librarian in Urbana, Ill. While she was there, she reconstructed the radio show from memory for use in her library.

The teams answer 20 timed questions about four diverse books. This year the books included "Frindle" by Andrew Clements, "Hank Zipzer #6: Holy Enchilada" by Henry Winkler, "Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days" by Stephen Manes and "Phineas L. MacGuire Erupts" by Frances O'Roark Dowell.

"The children do not get to select their teammates for the Battle of the Books, so the competition not only encourages reading, but helps the children learn to interact and work together as a team," Golembeski said.  

The winning fourth-graders from Lincoln School were Sophia Ricci, Natalie Ostrowski, Samantha Austin, Jodi Maloney and Cameron Cofrancesco.

Team champions for each of the elementary schools were: Jefferson School—Kyle Schaeffer, Julia Eckhardt, Jacob Dilorenzo, Mary Rosette and Jack List; Washington School—Frank DeMunno, Alex Rosa, Nick Zarkowski and Ken Axe; Wilson School—Chris DeBellonia, AJ Abendschoen, Alyssa Krinski, Marco Veltre and Shannon Condon.

For more information about the Caldwell-West Caldwell School district, visit its Web site.