Battle of the Books
Elementary Battle of the Books is a voluntary reading competition designed for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students for USD 259. Students are encouraged to read books from a specified list of 64 books selected by Library Media & Textbook Services. Each school will determine their team of four in December and participate in the district competition in January. Students need to be familiar with the events, characters, settings, and authors of the books and will also present a book talk. Leaders from Library Media and Media Production Services produce the live competition, and area celebrities serve as hosts. The district competition will be televised on Cox Cable Channel 20 and WPS-TV. Later, the competitions will be archived on the district website.
Middle School Battle of the Books competition for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders is held in April. The middle school book list consists of 24 books. Students will be asked questions about events, characters, settings, and authors of the books but will not be asked to do a book talk.
Click here to watch competitions from past years on the WPS-TV website.
Elementary BOTB List
Title |
Author's First Name |
Author's Last Name |
Number of Pages |
Call Number |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adidas vs. Puma: A Long-Running Rivalry |
Kenny |
Abdo |
24 |
685.31 ABD |
Apples to Oregon |
Deborah |
Hopkinson |
34 |
E HOP |
Aven Green Sleuthing Machine |
Dusti |
Bowling |
119 |
F BOW |
Blessing Cup, The |
Patricia |
Polacco |
40 |
E POL |
Boy on the Porch, The |
Sharon |
Creech |
151 |
F CRE |
Brothers in Arms: A True World War II Story of Wojtek the Bear and the Soldiers Who Loved Him |
Susan |
Hood |
48 |
940.54 HOO |
Bug Off: Creepy, Crawly Poems |
Jane |
Yolen |
30 |
811 YOL |
Catalina Incognito |
Jennifer |
Torres |
106 |
F TOR |
Chicken Squad, The |
Doreen |
Cronin |
92 |
F CRO |
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer |
Traci |
Sorell |
40 |
921 ROS |
Clementine |
Sara |
Pennypacker |
133 |
F PEN |
Click |
Kayla |
Miller |
191 |
741.5 MIL |
Day in the Life of the Desert, A |
Roxie |
Munro |
47 |
577.54 MUN |
Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House #37 OR Magic Tree House Merlin Mission #9) |
Mary Pope |
Osborne |
108 |
F OSB |
Eyes and the Impossible, The |
Dave |
Eggers |
249 |
F EGG |
First Cat in Space Ate Pizza, The |
Mac Barnett & |
Shawn Harris |
309 |
741.5 BAR |
Frindle |
Andrew |
Clements |
105 |
F CLE |
Girl Who Speaks Bear, The |
Sophie |
Anderson |
286 |
F AND |
Great Stink, The: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London's Poop Pollution Problem |
Colleen |
Paeff |
40 |
628 PAE or 921 BAZ |
Grump: The (Fairly) True Story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves |
Liesl |
Shurtiff |
295 |
F SHU |
Guinea Dog |
Patrick |
Jennings |
183 |
F JEN |
Henry's Freedom Box |
Ellen |
Levine |
40 |
E LEV |
How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee |
Carole Boston |
Weatherford |
40 |
921 COX |
Hundred Dresses, The |
Eleanor |
Estes |
80 |
F EST |
Jumanji |
Chris |
Van Allsburg |
28 |
E VAN or F VAN |
Karate Mouse, The (Geronimo Stilton #40) |
Geronimo |
Stilton |
100 |
F STI |
Kid Owner |
Tim |
Green |
325 |
F GRE |
King of the Mound: My Summer with Satchel Page |
Wes |
Tooke |
155 |
F TOO |
Last Gate of the Emperor |
Kwame Mbalia & |
Prince Joel Makonnen |
289 |
F MBA |
Lion of Mars, The |
Jennifer |
Holm |
323 |
F HOL |
Long Road to the Circus |
Betsy |
Bird |
246 |
F BIR |
Lucky Strike |
Bobbie |
Pyron |
263 |
F PYR |
Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando |
Andrea |
Wang |
40 |
921 AND |
Major Taylor: World Cycling Champion |
Charles R. |
Smith, Jr. |
46 |
921 TAY |
Marsupials |
Nic |
Bishop |
49 |
599.2 BIS |
Marvin Redpost: Class President |
Louis |
Sachar |
67 |
F SAC |
Matilda |
Roald |
Dahl |
178 |
F DAH |
Mission One: The Plant Planet (Astro-Nuts Vol. 1) |
Jon |
Scieszka |
211 |
F SCI |
Mr. McCloskey's Marvelous Mallards: The Making of Make Way for Ducklings |
Emma Bland |
Smith |
40 |
921 MCC |
Mr. Whiskers and the Shenanigan Sisters |
Wendelin |
Van Draanen |
199 |
F VAN |
Niagara Falls, or Does It? (Hank Zipzer Series, Vol. 1) |
Henry Winkler & |
Lin Oliver |
133 |
F WIN |
Once Upon a Camel |
Kathi |
Appelt |
322 |
F APP |
Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story |
Andrea |
Warren |
80 |
921 NAI or 362.73 WAR |
Paul Bunyan: A Tall Tale |
Steven |
Kellogg |
40 |
398.2 KEL |
Pie in the Sky |
Remy |
Lai |
380 |
F LAI |
Puppets of Spelhorst, The |
Kate |
DiCamillo |
141 |
F DIC |
Race to the South Pole (Ranger in Time, Vol. 4) |
Kate |
Messner |
138 |
F MES |
Road Trip!: Camping with the Four Vagabonds: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs |
Claudia |
Friddell |
40 |
917.304 FRI |
Rocks & Minerals |
Seymour |
Simon |
48 |
552 SIM |
Rose Named Peace, A: How Francis Meilland Created a Flower of Hope for a World at War |
Barbara Carroll |
Roberts |
44 |
921 MEI or 635 ROB |
Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans |
Russell |
Ginns |
244 |
F GIN |
Scranimals |
Jack |
Prelutsky |
40 |
811 PRE |
Shelter |
Christie |
Matheson |
179 |
F MAT |
Sky Full of Song, A |
Susan Lynn |
Meyer |
263 |
F MEY |
Stella |
McCall |
Hoyle |
169 |
F HOY |
Super Pancake |
Megan Wagner |
Lloyd |
169 |
741.5 LLO |
Superfudge |
Judy |
Blume |
178 |
F BLU |
Third Grade Angels |
Jerry |
Spinelli |
133 |
F SPI |
To Boldly Go: Hoe Nichelle Nichols and Star Trek Helped Advance Civil Rights |
Angela |
Dalton |
40 |
921 NIC or 790 DAL |
Tomas and the Library Lady |
Pat |
Mora |
32 |
E MOR |
Wild Robot, The |
Peter |
Brown |
277 |
F BRO |
Wonderful Hair: The Beauty of Annie Malone |
Eve Nadel |
Catarevas |
40 |
921 MAL |
Wrinkle in Time, A |
Madeline |
L'Engle |
232 |
F LEN |
Your Pal Fred |
Michael |
Rex |
255 |
741.5 REX |
Middle School BOTB List
Title |
Author's First Name |
Author's Last Name |
Call # |
---|---|---|---|
365 Days to Alaska |
Cathy |
Carr |
F CAR |
Confessions of a Class Clown |
Arianne |
Costner |
F COS |
Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, The |
Pablo |
Cartaya |
F CAR |
Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown |
Steve |
Sheinkin |
972.91 SHE |
Fast Pitch |
Nic |
Stone |
F STO |
First Time for Everything, A |
Dan |
Santat |
741.5 San or 921 SAN |
Framed! |
James |
Ponti |
F PON |
Frizzy |
Claribel A. |
Ortega |
741.5 ORT |
Garvey's Choice |
Nikki |
Grimes |
F GRI |
Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11 |
Alan |
Gratz |
F GRA |
I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives |
Caitlin Alifirenka & |
Martin Ganda |
920 ALI |
Iceberg |
Jennifer |
Neilsen |
F NIE |
Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall, The |
Ali |
Standish |
F STA |
Indigenous Ingenuity |
Deidre Havrelock & |
Edward Kay |
500.89 HAV |
Iron Trial, The |
Holly Black & |
Cassandra Clare |
F BLA |
Last Cuentista, The |
Donna Barba |
Higuera |
F HIG |
Mr. Lincoln Sits for His Portrait |
Leonard S. |
Marcus |
973.7 MAR |
One Crazy Summer |
Rita |
Williams-Garcia |
F WIL |
Operation Do-Over |
Gordon |
Korman |
F KOR |
Place to Hang the Moon, A |
Kate |
Albus |
F ALB |
Starfish |
Lisa |
Fipps |
F FIP |
Strangers, The (Greystone Secrets Vol. 1) |
Margaret Peterson |
Haddix |
F HAD |
We Dream of Space |
Erin Entrada |
Kelly |
F KEL |
When the World Turned Upside Down |
K. |
Ibura |
F IBU |