Battle of the Books
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS 2023-2024
Battle of the Books is a national reading program. The goal of the program is to support students in their love and discovery of reading by introducing them to quality literature and to develop friendships between students based on socialization, competition, and mutual respect.
What does that look like?
We will spend the season (September - Feb/March) reading and reviewing the books on our list in an engaging and fun way to prepare the kids to compete at our school battle and a district-wide battle based on those books.
***many students start reading some of the books in the summer.
Our Meetings will be held every Monday right after school. During these practices, we will review the books read on the book list by discussion and games. The meetings will end at 3:30 pm. Parents will pick students up at the front of the school by the office or students will return to CDC or Rec.
Reading - The kids will read on their own time. Since the battles are so far off, we suggest the kids take simple notes throughout each book - either on post-its in the book or a separate sheet of paper if reading digitally - just as a way to reinforce what they have read and help them remember key points of the books. This is a skill they can use throughout their education. :-)
The Book List and the Battles -
The book list for 3rd grade is 18 titles long whereas the 4th/5th grade list is 28 titles long. In order to participate in the school battle, the kids in 3rd grade will need to have read 10 books and 4th/5th graders will need to have read 15 of the books on their respective lists. In order for 4th/5th-grade students to participate in the district battle, the kids will need to have read 20 books. We suggest reading 3 to 4 books a month to get there.
The Battle Teams for the 3rd grade and 4th/5th grade school battle, as well as the 4th/5th grade district battle will be evenly matched and formed solely on the number of books read. In other words, each team will have collectively read about the same amount of books without taking anything else into consideration. These teams are created by the district coordinator using a computer program.
After our school battle, a new team of 4th/5th graders will be formed to send to the district battle. These are students who qualify (read at least 20 books) and have a desire to participate in the district battle. It is purely their choice (a confidential vote on their part is done at practice) as some students do not feel like going to the district battle is something they would enjoy. We will submit the list of names and a computer program will pick evenly-matched teams based only on the number of books read for each school team in the district so it will be a fairly matched district battle.
Where Can I Get the Books? Our school library should have a lot of the books on the list. The public library has a whole section dedicated to Battle of the Books and also has 2 apps, Hoopla and Cloud Library, where a lot of the books can be found and checked out digitally. Amazon and Audible are also great choices.
3rd Grade: Click the image below for 3rd grade info
Please text me your name, child’s name and email address (if I don’t have your email already) at 310-529-9431. Our correspondence will usually be by email, but I found that sometimes a text is necessary.
4th/5th Grade: Click here for the 4th/5th grade Book Form.
Kate Coppola [email protected]
Jesse Murphy [email protected]
Click the image below to view an interaction slide presentation.
Claire Izakowitz
Please email the chair(s) listed above.
