Close finish in DES book battle
Posted on: Mar 29, 2021
Perhaps it has been the relative separation of classrooms, or excitement for the return of a highlight event, but whatever the cause, the annual Battle of the Books competition at Delano Elementary School featured some extra energy this year.
Like the intermediate school competition earlier in the week, the third-grade race that culminated on Thursday, March 25, was exceptionally competitive. Three closely contested preliminary rounds were followed by a semifinal and a three-team championship round in which a grand total of three points separated the finalists.
Taking first place were Drake Bogdan, Evan Roff and Miles Griffin, who advanced with a third-place finish in the prelims and a second-place finish in the semis before claiming the top honors overall.
“As soon as I stepped into this room I was really nervous,” said Roff.
“When we were up there sitting I got butterflies in my stomach because I didn’t want to get third place,” said Griffin. “I have so many third-place medals. I didn’t want another one.”
The competition challenged students to read nine books in roughly six weeks, then answer questions about the characters and stories. How did the winning team prepare?
“We just studied the books,” said Bogdan.
“We did it together at (Tiger Kids Club),” said Griffin.
Roff managed to read all nine books, while Bogdan and Griffin each read seven.
“I didn’t want to do the ‘Whangdoodles,’” said Griffin. “That was the longest.”
Despite its length, Roff said “The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles” by Julie Andrews Edwards was among his favorite reads.
“I thought I would not like it at all. It’s something I never would have read,” he said. “It’s just a book that’s not in my comfort zone, but I guess I discovered it was. Normally I would prefer to read historical fiction or random chapter books.”
Bogdan said his favorite books were “The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse” by Bruce Hale and “Snot Stew” by Bill Wallace, due to their humor, and “Brother’s Keeper” by Julie Lee.
“I’m really into history, so I just like a lot of history books, and that one was pretty good,” Bogdan said.
Griffin added “By Dawn’s Early Light” to the group’s list of favorites.
As for what they enjoyed most, all agreed that reading the books, the excitement of competition, and the opportunity to work toward a goal as friends made the experience a memorable one.
“We did not do the practice questions ahead of time, which gave us a disadvantage,” said Griffin. “But we came out to win it.”
The second-place team was Rayna Schaefer, Josh Holzer and Ella Duis, and in third place were Chase Erdmann, Drake Schroer and Morris Binsfeld.
“This was one of my closest finals, so hopefully they all know how great they did,” said Angela Kalthoff, the gifted and talented coordinator for Delano Elementary School. “They really knew the books.”
* Kalthoff thanked the DES Partners in Education (PIE) group for providing funds that will help secure a new set of books for next year’s competition.
“There is so much great literature that has been written since the sets were created that I have,” Kalthoff said. “I’m really excited to get some new titles in to get kids reading about different things, different issues, and discovering different genres and different authors who are really up and coming. I’m grateful to PIE for providing us some of that money.”
Post Categories: Elementary School