In Which Book Does a Character Receive the Dreaded “Black Spot”?

Friday, March 9, 2012 - 18:54 Sundae Horn

BOB team members are: (standing, l. to r.) Josie Winstead, Carson O'Neal, Dylan Sutton, Caroline Temple (seated l. to r.) Mac Kalna, Darvin Contreras, Kyle Tillett, and Sam Marinace.

Don’t know? Ask a Battle of the Books kid.

On March 16th, eight Ocracoke middle school students will compete in the Northeast Regional Battle of the Books competition.

Ten teams will compete at the Regionals in Moyock, NC, where they will participate in a quiz-bowl-style tournament, answering questions about the books they’ve read

Battle of the Books is a program of the North Carolina School Library Media Association. NCSLMA chooses a list of books for each year’s competition that includes both classics of juvenile and young adult literature and newer titles. This year’s list included historical fiction, fantasy, contemporary fiction, Newbery medal winners, and mysteries. For the complete list, click here.

Ocracoke School librarian Ann Borland has been meeting with the BOB kids all school year to prepare for the competition. The kids meet during their lunch hour to choose books to read, discuss them, and answer sample questions compiled by Miss Ann. Ideally, each of the 27 books on the list will have been read by at least one student

The Ocracoke team usually begins their competition season by beating the Mattamuskeet team, but this year Ocracoke is the only Hyde County team and so goes directly to the regionals. The winner of each regional meet will go on to the state level.

Ocracoke Island Realty generously offered a house in Nags Head for the kids to stay in on the way to Moyock. Ocracoke Friends of the Library purchased team t-shirts again this year.