Battle of the Books at South End

Fourth-grade students at South End Elementary School recently participated in a Battle of the Books competition hosted by school library media specialist Tracy Reilly.

According to officials from the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, "The Battle of the Books is a reading motivation program.  The goals of the program are to encourage reading for pleasure, broaden reading interest, and recognize students who enjoy reading." 

The annual Battle of the Books list consists of 15 books selected by librarians from the group and includes books written by popular authors in a variety of genres such as biography, humor, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, historical fiction and realistic fiction. 

At the school, preparation for the competition began in January. As part of their library/media grade (for the third marking period), all 68 fourth-grade students were required to read at least three books of their choosing from the list.

Each student also filled out a "Memory Jogger" for each book to be used for study purposes if they decided to participate in the battle, and all students also created three questions for each book to be used during practice battles and elimination rounds. 

The competition started with elimination rounds in April as 44 South End students began the competition by forming teams. By mid-May, only five teams — “Rockin’ Readers,” “Extreme Readers,” “Lightning Thieves,”  “Think Tank” and “Brainiac Attack” — remained.

When the dust cleared, the “Rockin’ Readers” won the competition. Each winning team member received a $20 Barnes & Noble gift certificate.

Runner-ups received certificates of participation and a team photograph.