Battle of the Books saw 14 SD57 schools compete to see which team knew the most about a collection of 12 books.

By Tommy Osborne

Battle of the Books

Friendly but competitive reading returns to SD57

Apr 17, 2024 | 5:09 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The annual reading competition “Battle of the Books” between School District 57 (SD57) schools was hosted today at École Lac des Bois. The friendly competition sees students from grade 5 to 7 team up in trios to see who among the groups knows the most about a collection of 12 books Red Cedar Book Awards, which features all Canadian authors.

President of the Prince George Teacher-Librarians’ Association Tina Cousins explained the Battle of the Books was created by a group of teacher-librarians 25 years ago, and seeing how excited students get over it has been fantastic to see.

“It’s really interesting to see their excitement about books, and any time we can get kids together talking about books, I think we’ve won,” Cousins said.

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The energy in the building was similar to a sporting event, with students in the audience cheering on their school mates, and the teams competing hyping themselves up and celebrating when they got a question correct. Not only is it a fun game and a great way to promote reading, Cousins added it’s especially great that the Battle of the Books also promotes Canadian authors.

“It’s a win. It’s a win for us. 25 years in this district, it’s been promoting Canadian literature. We’re always on the lookout for good Canadian literature because it’s about us,” she said.

As for the students themselves, the winning trio of Logan Tudor, Kayla Hudson, and Haddie Whitney said they had a lot of fun doing the extra reading, and Battle of the Books also motivated them to read more than usual.

“I definitely read a lot more books that I wouldn’t normally read. So that was interesting to branch out,” Tudor.

“I got to try new books that I wouldn’t really read on my free time, but they were really good,” added Hudson.

The winners each received a 25 dollar gift card to Books and Company, but the satisfaction of seeing their hard work and diligent reading.

“I was really surprised as well because originally one of my teammates was sick, so we had to get someone else, but we ended up doing really well. So I’m really proud of us,” said Whitney.

Having run for more than 25 years, there’s no doubt battle of the books will be back next year to continue getting our schools hyped for reading.

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