Resources to Set Up

Battle of the Books Program

in your Library

Reasons to Offer Battle of Books Program

Books as Resources

Web Sites as Resources

Setting Up Teams

·        Options: 1) Identify frequent teen/tween library users and invite them to participate 2) Contact school media person to identify & invite students 3) Get several teachers to form class teams who then compete at the public library 4) Put out publicity, have sign-up & let all interested teens take part in initial book trivia mini-Battles or 5) Allow teens to choose their own teams

·        NOT just for gifted students or advanced readers. (“You don’t have to be wonderful, just willing.” - Joanne Kelly)

·        Select students going into 6-9 grades

·        Choose 3-5 players per team (plus 1-2 substitutes per team?)

·        Determine how much control you will have and how much the team members will have. (First year—you might want to be in control to help things run more smoothly.)

·        Issues for teams/coaches to decide: Team name, team logo (for T-shirt and/or button—good library pr), wacky dress-up ideas (possibly tied to team name?), will every member read every book or will they divide titles?

Choosing Book Titles for Battle

·        Choose variety from different genres & from award winners, new books, classics

·        Books should have strong plot, good character development & theme to support variety of questions without becoming too trivial

·        Can select titles yourself, identify more books than need and let young people choose or ask teens for suggested titles

·        How many titles? Depends on number of participants, availability of books, complexity of competition. (For first timers, 10 titles might be enough but you will need to pick all new titles another year; alternative, choose many the first year, use only 1/3 & have enough for 2 more year’s competitions.)

·        Titles available in paperback make it easier to purchase extras to increase availability. Might contact publisher or bookstore to donate copies.

·        Don’t announce titles you will use in your Battle until specific date so everyone has same amount of time to read and prepare.

·        Will you make special display of books being used or put on special Battle spine labels (removable ones)?

·        Non-fiction, folklore and biography are tricky to use; make sure questions only apply to that edition. (You might say, “In which book on our list…”)

·        Books in series also difficult, as same characters, settings, themes may appear in all books

Creating Questions

·        You, library staff and coaches can create questions & have team members create some that might be used.

·        Consensus is that wording questions so that book title is always the answer is least confusing for everyone.

·        If you wish to encourage reading of the books by others in audience, word questions so they don’t give away story ending.

·        If you want outside input, set up suggestion box for other teens to suggest titles & write questions.

·        While reading books chosen, make notes about interesting incidents, distinctive characters, plot twists, notable themes, points about setting, repeated quotes or phrases. Note page numbers so can add this info to actual question sheet, in case there is a challenge during the contest

·        If have large list of titles, need at least 5 questions from each book; with fewer books, need more questions per book

·        If you will be using same books for practice sessions & actual Battle, you will need even more questions

·        Make sure to mark which questions were used which year or in which round of contest

·        Do not create questions that are tricky or too trivial; conversely, too broad/vague questions might apply to more than one title

·        If you will have playoff, create questions that are harder to use in this later competition

·        Make questions relatively easy for first year’s competition so teens will feel positive about experience & want to return next year

·        If you work with neighboring library (libraries), school media librarians or teachers, you could share both selecting titles & creating questions

·        Mid-Hudson could create repository for questions created by member libraries, to be shared with members as needed

·        Look at publishers’ web sites for question inspiration from study guides (see list of publishers below))

·        Be certain questions are based on the actual book & not a video/film version of title

·        During practice or Battle, mark questions that were missed or challenged & revisit them to either reword or discard

·        Web sites with questions - http://www.battleofthebooks.org/samplemiddle2004.html

Study Guides from Publishers

·        HarperCollins - http://www.harpercollins.com/readers/index.aspx and http://www.harperchildrens.com/teacher/catalog/guide_browse.asp?min=6&max=8

·        Random House - http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/

·        Scholastic Study Guides in MHLS Professional Collection (Type Reading Guide as Keyword search in catalog)

·        Scholastic Book Guides (to purchase)-http://www.mariinc.com/bookguide.html

·        List of Children’s Publishers - http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/publish.html

Volunteers (Coaches, Scorekeepers, Timers)

·        Coaches—1 or 2 (preferably) to work with teams, do mini battles to prepare them for competition

·        Coaches can be library staff, parents, teachers, school media librarians—any who are willing to read books & work with teens

·        Timer (responsible person to track time when answering questions)

·        Quiz master—asks questions, scorekeeper, judge (might be quiz master or another person who has read books)

·        See if you can get local “celebrity” of interest to teens to act as scorekeeper or timer, to add zip to program

Rules of Battle

·        Rules from various web sites- http://www.buffalolib.org/events/botb2004/index.asp

and http://www.suffolk.lib.ny.us/youth/bb/Rules.html

·        Things to consider: Number of players on teams, will subs be used--how many per team, number of questions per game, how much time to answer each question, when can other team answer & number of points they get, can audience answer as last resort, number of points for right answer (for title, author, extra points for both?), when to take break

Forms You Might Use

·        Question form (to be used to write contest questions on) Sample available

·        Bookmark with Battle book titles listed

·        List of rules

·        Book facts form (for students to use as they read chosen titles) Sample available

·        Score sheets 9Sample available)

·        Name tags for team members

·        PR for media, library/school newsletters, your web site, school’s web site

·        Posters to advertise Battle and to attract team members

·        Battle invitations to parents, school personnel, library board members, community leaders

·        Winners’ certificates

Publicity

·        Put write-up in library’s newsletter (& school’s, if possible)

·        Send publicity to local news media

·        Create posters to place in library, schools, community teen hangouts. Consider having kids make posters or MHLS might work on a generic one for the $5 poster menu

·        Contact local bookstore; they might make display of books being used, might give you discount on books being used

·        Create bookmarks listing Battle titles—to encourage other teens to read books used

Running Local Battle

·        Use local contest to initiate Battle concept in your library

·        Set up timeline for reading books, recruiting teens/tweens & adult helpers, creating questions, doing pr, soliciting prizes in community, setting up dates for competition

·        Consider using adaptation of popular games—like Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, others?

·        Hold contest in space large enough to hold potential audience (parents, other teens, community members)

·        Solicit local merchants of places teens frequent for prizes or gift certificates

·        If you have several teams, plan enough time for round robin competition with grand finale of two highest scoring teams competing for “championship”

·        Give each team member & subs certificate of participation at beginning of contest, so everyone gets something for taking part

·        Get feedback verbally from participants & also create evaluation form which can be available at actual Battle

·        Take pictures during contests & display them in library; have someone videotape the Battle

·        Invite media to attend & do write-up, photos

·        After Battle (but not day of contest), have pizza or ice cream party for all participants

·        Create plaque or trophy on which is inscribed each year’s winning team