Battle of the Books helps prepare students to compete in teams answering comprehension questions. Students receive a list of 20 books every year to split up and read, and then perform at the final battle, answering detailed questions about the books they read. The roster this year includes Ella Spittler, Melissa Kurczek, and Ana Schliepp.

“Battle of the Books is almost a year long program, so students are given a list of books,” library media specialist Sarah Gumtow said. “ During the time between June and February students have time to read the books. We do practice questions, then in February they have that final battle where students can work in a group of four. They answer really detailed questions about the books; it’s a statewide battle so there’s teams all over Wisconsin that compete.”

Every year, a new list of books comes out. Students split up into teams of up to four, and take on their own portion of books from the list to read for the next couple of months.

“You read specific books and answer questions about them later, pretty fun and enjoyable in my opinion,” freshman Ella Spittler said.

There’s a different list every year. A committee makes sure to look at the most options that they can and choose a variety.

“In our committee, we look at all the award winners for the year, and then we also take suggestions from advisors and students. We try to have a really inclusive list, so we read or have something from all of the different genres, and all kinds of diverse or inclusive characters in the book,” Gumtow said. “We have a variety of formats, so we have books that are written in prose, like regular books, nonfiction, graphic novels, books in verse, so a wide variety in as many ways as we can.”

Students in the club are encouraged to read books on the list and other books as well. The club was made with the idea of helping students like reading more.

“Right now I’m reading “Powerless” by Laura Roberts. I read “Wings of Fire” (Tui T. Sutherland),and “Fourth Wing” (Rebecca Yarros),” freshman Melissa Kurczek said.

Members meet monthly to discuss books and do practice battles by answering detailed questions about the books they’re reading.

“We meet once a month at the beginning of school, until it gets closer to December, and then we meet, probably once every two weeks. For sure in January and February we meet more often,” Gumtow said. “But, right now our students are working on reading as many books from the list as they can, so it’s not necessary to meet as often in the beginning of the year.”

Club members read often, and find reading helps spark creativity, as well as bringing readers to other worlds as they read.

“I like how it brings out the imagination and the creativity, and how you experience it,” Spittler said.

The final battle takes place in the last week of February. Students compete with other school groups from all over Wisconsin, answering questions on a website called Moodle.

“Then the final battle, and all of our practice battles are on something called Moodle on the internet, so we’ll spend some of our meetings looking at Moodle quizzes to help students get used to that platform,” Gumtow said.

Battle of the Books has been running for over 10 years, and helps kids read outside of their comfort zone.