Kensington’s fourth-grade Battle of the Books team placed second out of 19 competitors at the regional literary quiz bowl held on Monday, March 11th. The Battle of the Books competition tests students’ knowledge of ten specific books chosen by librarians within the WSWHE BOCES library system.
“For months leading up to this day, students in grades 3-6 read and studied five fiction and five non-fiction books in preparation to battle it out with competing schools,” WSWHE BOCES explained. “The teams, each consisting of around 10 students, tested themselves on every kind of book detail imaginable, from the plot to the dedication. During the competition, they had 20 seconds to answer a recall question, responding in the form of author and title. There were 28 questions per round.”
Kensington’s second-place winning team included fourth graders Sophia Adolfi, Isabella Barrows, Lyla Krogmann, Cecil LaLone, Ella Larson, Bennett Menard, Maya Royael, Emma Stevens, and Selah Strickland. They were coached by Library Media Specialist Annemarie Dumar.
Kensington’ third grade team included Tessa Carusone, Amelia Cole, Grace Herrick, Natalie McClenning, Jackson Moore, Mattea Rice, Lilia Schmidt, Sophia Taveres, and Sam Wells. Teacher Pam Laurent coached this team.
Competing from the Middle School were fifth graders Shannon Benyeda, Carson Brown, Isaac Buckowski, Nicholas Candido, Brett Chambers, Ava Della Bella, Natalie Frasier, Maggie Goodwin, Rebecca McPhee, Sadie Palmer, Joanie Polhemus, and Nicholas Rivers, coached by Teacher Kathleen Gebo.
The middle School sixth grade team included Schuyler Quartiers, Gavin Rittenhouse, Anthony Della Bella, Jacob Barber, Arianna Harvey, and Emma Canale. Their coach was teacher Kelsey Crosby.
Additional stories on the competition are available form the Post Star HERE, and from WSWHE BOCES HERE.
Want to read the books in this year’s competition? Here they are:
GRADE 3
- The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet
- Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
- The Ghost of Fossil Glen by Cynthia DeFelice
- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
- Phineas L. MacGuire … Erupts! by Frances O’Roark Dowell
- Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
- Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
- Nurse, Soldier, Spy by Marissa Moss
- I Am Helen Keller by Grace Norwich and Mark Elliott
- River of Dreams by Hudson Talbott
GRADE 4
- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
- El Deafo by Cece Bell
- Frindle by Andrew Clements
- A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis by Matt de la Peña
- Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
- The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal by Cheryl Harness
- Those Rebels, John & Tom by Barbara Kerley
- Bird in a Box by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
- Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka
GRADE 5
- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
- Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone
- Phineas Gage by John Fleischman
- Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
- A Dog’s Life by Ann M. Martin
- My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen
- The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin
- Elephant Run by Roland Smith
- Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White by Melissa Sweet
- Funny Bones by Duncan Tonatiuh
GRADE 6
- Escape!: The Story of The Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose
- War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
- Blizzard!: The Storm That Changed America by Jim Murphy
- The Legend of Bass Reeves by Gary Paulsen
- The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
- Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson
- The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
- I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai (with Patricia McCormick)