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Battle of the books begins Saturday

By Staff | Apr 13, 2010

HUGHESVILLE – Lena Carichner, director of the Hughesville library announced that the Battle of the Books will take place this Saturday at the Hughesville High School. Beginning at 8 a.m., over 600 registered students from seven counties will compete for prize awards at Hughesville High School from 8 to noon.

“Starting in the fall, our committee gave out a list of 40 book titles for the students to read,” Carichner said. They have been reading the books since December 2009. “It is a shared list across the state. It comes from the Intermediate Unit 8 near Altoona,” continued Carichner.

The competition is sponsored by the Northcentral Interscholastic Reading Association, and this is the 17th year for the event. 53 teams of ten each will be competing.

During the competition two teams will compete against each other to answer 40 questions on the books read. Each team will compete in three rounds according to Carichner.

Teams and students are divided by grade levels, grades 4 through 6, 7 through 9, and 10 through 12. Each grade level received 40 titles to read, It is up to each team to be sure that someone has read each book, and can answer the questions concerning that book. How they decide to do it and answer the individual questions, is left up to each team. To get good scores, more than one student reads each book according to Carichner.

Each year there is a different list to read. Currently the lists run in a three year cycle, with some additions and deletions.

The students are from Bradford, Sullivan,Wyoming, Lycoming, Northumberland, Union, and Tioga Counties. Participating schools are from Athens, Canton, Hughesville, St. John Neuman Regional Aacademy, Muncy, Montgomery, Westfield, North Penn, Williamson, Williamsport, Montoursville, North Penn and Warrior Run.

There will be a lunch break while scores are being added, and an awards assembly is being planned. Teams with the highest scores get trophies at all three levels.

Volunteers from participating schools will be asking the questions. “Students get really excitied when we hand out the awards during the assembly,” said Carichner.

“Can you imagine 600 students in a gym all because of READING?”