This spring, PEF sponsored Battle of the Books, a PUSD competition that brought students from three schools together for an afternoon of friendly rivalry and a shared love of reading. Hosted at the Thurgood Marshall Library, teams of middle school students from Octavia E. Butler Magnet, Eliot Arts Magnet, and Thurgood Marshall competed in front of a live audience to answer trivia questions on a selection of 13 books:
Esperanza Rising
Weirdo Nimona
Greenglass House
Fuzzy Mud
Enigma Girls
Disaster Days
The War that Saved My Life
The Secret Library
Candace, the Universe, and Everything
Frizzy
The Wrong Way Home
Blended
Mid-Air
For weeks, each school’s team worked together, along with their librarian, to memorize their books in preparation. Students were excited to face off against other schools, but their librarians were thrilled to see the new community being formed. Through Battle of the Books, students had an opportunity to interact with peers from rival schools. Beyond forming friendships with their teammates, competing students also bonded with their competition over a shared love of reading.
After a hard-fought but friendly competition, OEB took home the gold, with Marshall in second place and Eliot in third. OEB would then go on to become the first ever Foothill Regional Battle of the Books Champions.
