This year, Rochester Community Schools is introducing a new way for students to gain a love for reading. Battle of the Books is a district wide competition where teams go head to head  in different events to earn points for their team.

“This is our first year of the competition so the more students know about it and are excited about it the better,” curriculum department representative Mrs. Ashley Painter said.  “Battle of the Books is something that has been done nationwide.  It’s a movement to try and get students interested in reading. We have surrounding school districts like Birmingham and Troy who have been doing it for a couple of years, which is how we found out about it and this will be our first year participating which we are very excited about.”

To gain as much interest as possible, students were able to have a say in the books selected.

“The books that are selected are nominated by students,” Mrs. Painter said. “[It is] what they want to read and what they want to be apart of the battles. The books will change year to year based on student interest. We do try to focus on books that are more current because we have a better chance of meeting with the authors and we just want kids to remain aware of what’s currently out there and some popular authors that are sort of trending right now.” 

Because there are six books selected, students are not required to read all of them. It is recommend that they pick a few to focus on a learn about.

“What we are asking students to do now is to read as many of them as possible and what we are working towards in May we are going to have a Battle of the Books event,” Mrs. Painter explained. “Part of the event will be a trivia challenge. You don’t have to have read all six books but if you’re an expert in one or two then you an be the expert in your team for that book that you read or that you particularly loved.”

In addition to the trivia questions there will be some form of interaction with as many authors as possible. There will also be food, prizes, and different competitions for students to be involved in.

“If you’re interested in being on the team that’s the first thing you do is go to the sign-up genius on the website,” Mrs. Painter said. “If you have any problems with that any student can see me or [RHS media specialist] Mrs. Harris. We are kind of the two point people in Rochester and will be happy to help them out with that.

The Battle of the Books event will be held on Friday, May 4, 2018.

“We figured a Friday night a little bit more relaxed. We try to squeeze it’s between SATs and really the start of AP testing,” Mrs. Painter said. “We want to emphasize that it’s a fun night. You don’t have to be so stressed out about it.”

For more information on this event, visit rcsbattleofthebooks.com.