Battle of the Books competition celebrates reading
Elementary, middle and high school students competed in the 11th Annual Battle of the Books competition throughout the month of April.
This districtwide competition challenged teams of exceptional readers to recall specific facts, literary themes and concepts from award-winning books. In teams, students practiced and competed with their knowledge of the participating novels.
For the first time, high school students competed in person, rather than online. Hosted at Glendale, with teams from Glendale, Parkview and Hillcrest, 60 students competed face-to-face. Teams were also given time to challenge questions if they felt there was something wrong, such as incorrect wording or more than one correct answer. If a consensus was reached with a majority of the teams, the group chose to award the point to those who got it right or throw the question out.
“It was great to see kids passionately discussing books and using evidence to back up their arguments in an authentic way,” said Glendale Librarian Samantha Donnalley.
All three of the top placing teams were from Glendale. The winning team, called Sythedom, was made up of two freshmen, Isabella Sloan and Katie Oliver.
2026 Battle of the Books High School Champions by school:
At the middle school level, 60 students from 11 schools competed in the Hillcrest High School library. Students answered more than 200 questions from 12 different books that they had read throughout the school year. After the competition, students got to connect with each other, learn about resources from the Springfield-Greene County Library and take home some new books to read. They also had a special visit from Author Meg Eden Kuyatt who wrote one of the books they studied.
“A huge shout out to all of the librarians and teachers who helped get the teams ready for the competition,” said Pershing Librarian Curtis Thomas. “It was an awesome day of celebrating books and reading!”
2026 Battle of the Books Middle School Champions:
- Central Scholars - first place
- Cherokee - second place
- Hickory Hills - third place
The elementary school teams competed virtually from their own school’s library via Kahoot, a game-based learning platform. Ten teams from 10 elementary schools answered 120 questions about all 12 of the Mark Twain Award nominees, with just 30 seconds to answer each question. The winners were announced on Wednesday, April 22 on a Zoom call. During the Awards Ceremony, the students also got to talk with Lindsay Lackey, the author of “Farther Than The Moon,” one of the nominees this year.
“The librarians poured their hearts and time into training their teams for the competition,” said Fremont Librarian Morgan Lamkin.
2026 Battle of the Books Elementary School Champions:
