Battle of the Books is a nationwide reading program that gives kids the chance to participate in a competition that doesn’t involve sports equipment; all the kids need is dedicated time to read and study books. Students on Battle of the Books teams prepare to be asked questions about the content of the books in a competition style.
Every year, our library district hosts the Battle of the Books program for grades 3-5. We partner with local schools to bring this fun, educational program to the students. Our school partners form teams and recruit coaches while we pick the books, create the questions, and facilitate the program either in the schools or at the library.
Each grade level reads 8 books. When I took over the program for our district in 2022, my goal was to refresh the lists for each grade level with books that are more relevant to youth and represent greater diversity. One of the most popular book titles we added this year was Marcus Makes a Movie by Kevin Hart, an author of color.
The book features a Black boy as the headstrong yet thoughtful protagonist who loves to draw and wants to turn his comic book characters into movie characters. One of the things our team likes most about this book is its appeal for young readers – Hart makes use of slang words and incorporates modern-day technology like cell phones, MeTube (an obvious reference to YouTube) and video games.
Hosting Battle of the Books through the National Program would give us extra support in the form of pre-selected books and questions, but we appreciate the freedom to choose our own books that meet the needs and interests of our community’s students. This flexibility ensures that participants encounter new and exciting stories, enriching their reading experiences beyond classroom materials.
The other advantage to creating our own book lists is the ability to create variety in genre and format. We have graphic novels and picture book biographies on our lists, for example. This mixture of books not only motivates students to read more, but also helps them discover new genres and authors they might not encounter in their school curriculum.
If you’re looking to bring this program to the schools in your district, you can go through America’s Battle of the Books at battleofthebooks.org, or feel free to contact me to learn more about how our library district does it at trisha@clearviewlibrary.org.
Trisha Parsons is the Children and Family Services Librarian at the Clearview Library District. In addition to Battle of the Books and other school outreach programs, she facilitates a family book club and a homeschool group.