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Watauga County School’s Best Readers Met to Prove Their Mettle at the District-Wide Battle of the Books Competition

Coach Jennifer Brown with Hadley Woods, Laurel Mortensen, Grace Floyd, Ava Larned, Kyleigh Hogan and Iyla Freed.

Earlier this month, Watauga County School’s best readers met to prove their mettle at the district-wide Battle of the Books competition. Green Valley’s Gold team took home the win in the elementary contest, with Parkway’s Blue team winning the middle school event.

The winning teams were coached by Parkway’s Owen Gray and Green Valley’s Mitzi London respectively.

A long-standing tradition in Watauga County Schools, each year Battle of the Books tasks teams from each school in the district to a competition that tests students ability to answer questions on books from a pre-set list they’ve read over the past year. Each team plays every other team once in the competition and each round consists of 12 questions — six posed to each team.

The questions require students to identify the book in which a specific scene, event, quote or character appears. If a team provides the correct title and author of the book, they are awarded three points. If they miss, the other team has one chance to answer the question and can win two points for a correct title response. The winning team is determined on the basis of total points scored in all rounds combined.

Watauga County School Battle of the Books coordinator Candice Trexler said students who participated in Battle of the Books have the opportunity to read and engage with a wide variety of literature over the year.

“Battle of the Books is an engaging academic extracurricular activity that invites our students to participate in a fun and competitive event,” Trexler said. “There is so much value in the genres and quality of literature the kids read in preparing for competition each year. Our students learn teamwork and trust by using their knowledge of the books to help contribute to the success of their team.”

Watauga County’s district-wide winners will go on to compete in the region competition April 26 in Taylorsville.

Green Valley’s winning team was made up of Hadley Woods, Laurel Mortensen, Grace Floyd, Ava Larned, Kyleigh Hogan and Iyla Freed.

Parkway’s team consisted of Isabella Sibaja, Amelie Fawson, Sadie Hughett , Lauren Patterson , Olivia Burroughs and Olivia Beasley.

Battle of the Books is made possible by a $2,000 grant from the Watauga Education Foundation that is divided equally between all eight schools for the purchase of books on the list each year.

Coach Jennifer Brown with Hadley Woods, Laurel Mortensen, Grace Floyd, Ava Larned, Kyleigh Hogan and Iyla Freed.