What is the Battle of the Books?

Battle of the Books is a regional competition among area schools that is designed to encourage reading. Students prepare by reading novels, discussing them at club meetings, and then answering questions about the novels at the regional competition.

What is the cost?

The club and competition are free for BCS students. However, students must register for the club through the CER office.

How do I register?

Sign up via the CER website.

What are the questions like?

The answer to EVERY question is the name of a book from the reading list and its respective author. For example, if the question is "In what book does a girl relive her birthday over and over?" the answer would be "11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass."

How often do the clubs meet?

All of the clubs meet about 2 times per month. The 3rd/4th Grade club meets every other Wednesday, and the 5th/6th and 7th/8th Grade clubs meet every other Tuesday.

What do you do at the club meetings?

First, we give an overview of all the books that need to be read by the BotB team and then students select which books they'll be responsible for reading. Once students have read some of the books, we take a few notes and discuss the ins and outs of each book so that everyone on the team has a general understanding of the book. Then, we play games to sharpen our knowledge of each book. Finally, we prepare for the competition with mini-battles that act like the real thing.

How do the competitions work?

Each school sends 1 or 2 teams to the regional competition for each grade-level group (3rd/4th, 5th/6th, or 7th/8th). Each team is comprised of 6 students and 1 alternate. Each team takes a turn answering a Battle question within a specific time limit. Teammates talk to each other to come up with the correct answer, and then the team captain announces the answer to the judges. Points are awarded for the correct book title and the correct author. Correct pronunciation of both is important. Teams that answer incorrectly receive no points. Teams cannot steal another team's question by giving the correct answer, so team members can speak freely when it is their turn to answer the question.

How many books do I need to read?

In order to be on the competition team, you must have read at least 5 of the books from the reading list. However, teams do better at the regional competition when most of the teammates have read over half the books on the reading list. There are exactly 15 books for which each team is responsible. Teammates split up the list so that at least 2 people have read each book.