Battle Royale

Cara is an avid reader. Voracious is a good word to describe her when it comes to books. Not sure where she gets this... hee-hee! So it was no surprise that she came home last month and told me she was made the captain of the Battle of the Books team.

A typical "Battle" is a full day tournament or game, like the College Bowl, in which students' teams earn points by answering questions about the books on the book list. Students are expected to read and re-read these books over and over again to basically become 'book experts'. The competition will be on April 19th and her team has been practicing with the librarian every day either during recess, lunch or before school begins. It's fun to see her so excited about it all!

Some sample questions they would be expected to know:
1) In what book does a character feel as popular as a bad case of chicken pox?
2) In what book does a sawmill whistle mark time?
3) In what book does a character mention rabbit-skin underwear?
4) In what book does a character get his or her first taste of french fries?
5) In what book is burgundy silk material used as a bookmark?

Yikes! The ten books this year are:


Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo






Earthquake Terror
by Peg Kehret







Ferret in the Bedroom, Lizards in the Fridge
by Bill Wallace






The Forging of the Blade
by R.L. LaFevers





The Grand Escape
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor






Mister and Me
by Kimberly Willis Holt






Shape-Changer
by Bill Brittain





The Silver Balloon
by Susan Bonners





Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear
by Lensey Namioka





The Year of Miss Agnes
by Kirkpatrick Hill


I've read most of them and, of course, they're all pretty good books!