Christine Kelly, supervisor of curriculum and instruction, asks the Harrison Prep team a question during Clover Park School District’s 2009 Battle of the Books.
For the second year in a row, the team from Lochburn Middle School clenched Clover Park School District’s Middle School Battle of the Books title. The Lions took on teams from Harrison Prep, Hudtloff, Mann and Woodbrook. To prepare for the battle, students read all or some of the 20 books on the list, discussed them and quizzed each other on the contents. The schools held smaller battles to determine which team would advance to the district battle. All of the selected books are currently nominated for a Pacific Northwest Young Readers’ Choice Award or a Washington Sasquatch Award.
The battles are conducted in a “quiz show” format. Questions begin with the words “In which book…” so that the answer will always be a title and author. If a team incorrectly named the title and/or the author, the next team had the opportunity to steal the question. The teams were neck and neck throughout the competition, but Lochburn’s team picked up more steals than the others, which earned them enough points to jump ahead.The annual event started in 2007 between Hudtloff and Lochburn. Mann was added in 2008 and Woodbrook and Harrison Prep took part for the first time this year.