Nebo School District students competed in the “Battle of the Books” challenge

On Monday, January 28, 2019, the top two teams from each Nebo school, Payson Junior High School, Mapleton Junior High School, and Diamond Fork Junior High, met to compete in a Nebo School District “Battle of the Books” challenge.

The teams each read 20 books and then prepared to answer questions about those 20 books. They also had to memorize the titles and authors to all 20 books! First place went to Payson Junior High School’s FBI team. Second place was awarded to Mapleton Junior High School’s Reckoner team. Way to Battle!

The librarians or media specialists at each school, Allison Mower, Lori Marret, and Ellen-Anita Olson, direct the “battle” competition at each of their schools.

Librarian media specialist, Allison Mower at Payson Junior High said, “Here at Payson Junior, we had 17 teams! Go Grizzlies! We started this to encourage a love of reading. The students read, talked and even studied in groups. This reading is a chance to socialize about something you enjoy doing. This encourages students to read books that they might not normally read. My students found new favorites like “The Skin I’m In” by Sharon Flake. The students were terrific!”

Students had the following comments about the Battle of the Books:

“I like that is does not matter if we win or lose. I like that we are making a bunch of friends and talking about books that we all read.” Brooklyn Johnson

“I love the Battle of the Books. It was really fun reading the books and forgetting (sarcasm) about them when it counted.” Jesse Booth

“I liked that it helped me to expand my horizons. I liked being able to talk about books with friends.” Madi Lindsay

“I liked it how it made me read books that I never would have read.” Emily Morrill

“I miss that Battle of the Books is over.” Abigail Cooper

“It was so much fun to meet new people and read new books.” Ashlynn Durfee

Diamond Fork Junior posted about their competition stating:

“Diamond Fork hosted the Battle of the Books competition. Student teams read a variety of books from this year’s award-winning book list and competed answering questions based on the books. These Diamond Fork students competed: Natalie Jewkes, Elnorra Shaeffer, Madalyn Patchett, Kaitlyn Wyatt, Addison Garrett, Taylor Christensen, Cassandra Farnsworth, Joy Coxson, Natalie Nelson, Tanner Chapman. A big thank you to our amazing librarian, Mrs. Ellen-Anita Olsen, who sponsors Battle of the Books.”

Payson Junior posted this about their competition stating:

“Battle of the Books was a roaring success! Congratulations to all of the students who participated and won. First place goes to Ashlynn Durfee, Londyn McMurdie, and Diana Ward. All those who participated did a great job and read 24 books per team. Great work Grizzlies!”

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