Battle of the Books is a competition held here at WRMS. Mrs. Baranski, the librarian, describes it as,”…an epic book battle where 9 teams go head to head answering questions about books from the William Allen White List to earn the golden book trophy.” The William Allen White List has children’s books that are nominated for the award. It was created in 1952 to honor one of Kansas’s most distinguished citizens, William Allen White. He was a well known American author, politician, leader of the Progressive movement, and newspaper editor of the Emporia Gazette. This challenge is a way for students to read popular books for their age group and really comprehend them through answering questions and earning prizes. Students can also be in teams with their friends. Teams are usually groups of four and could be mixed, so 7th and 8th grade go against one another. There are two teams going at one time, and the others get to sit and watch them. The game is played in Jeopardy-style, and the goal is to get as many points as possible, and get the questions right so the other team can’t steal the points.
On Monday May 13th, the first round of competition happened. The “Oopma Loompas” advanced onto the next round. There was tough competition, and teams were doing very well at answering questions about the books. Some teams had a disadvantage because they were missing team members. Bryant Gregoire, 8th grader on “The Page Burners,” said, “Two people are missing from our team, and it makes us feel more pressured, engaged, and we have to carry more weight.” Teams with missing members can sometimes struggle to answer questions if they did not read the book that the question is about. Books are usually split up between team members so not everyone has to read all of them.
The final round of the challenge was on Wednesday May 15th, and The “Oompa Loompas”: 7th graders Emma Evenson, Audrey Clark, Eva Haas, and Nikita He finished with the winning trophy. In addition to them, “Fox,” the teacher’s team made up of Mrs. Quast, Ms. Pierce, Mrs. Stones, and Mrs. McLeland, won also. The final round got cut a little short because of time, but they decided to just leave it at that. Member of The “Oompa Loompas” team, Audrey Clark, said, “Our team felt really good about the win, we actually did it in elementary school, not the same team but the same people, so it was really nice to win again because I’ve won twice.”
Congratulations to all teams who participated in Battle of the Books! It was a good challenge and a great way to exercise your brain. If you are interested in Battle of the Books, you could get a head start on the reading by checking out the new 2025 William Allen White Nominees list. https://wawchildrensbookaward.com/current-reading-lists
