On Friday the 8th of September, nine of our year 5-6 students went to Berkley Middle School to compete in the Waikato Literacy Association's first ever 'Battle of the Books'.

So what is a Book Battle? A Book Battle competition is an exciting and engaging literary event designed to foster a love for reading and encourage friendly competition among students.

Students are in teams representing their school and are assigned a selection of books to read. After thoroughly reading the assigned books, teams compete against each other, testing their knowledge through a series of multi-choice questions.

A couple of mystery rounds are also included. The content of these rounds will be unknown to the students. They may be topics such as nursery rhymes, picture books, myths and legends or NZ fiction.

The Book Battle competition not only promotes critical thinking and comprehension skills, but also encourages teamwork, sportsmanship, and a deeper appreciation for literature. It provides an opportunity for students to showcase their reading abilities in a fun and competitive environment.

Silverdale had been training hard for this event. We have been meeting every week and reading through the allocated reading list set by Waikato Literacy Association. On the day, 17 teams from all over the Waikato competed against each other in 8 rounds of questions. At the end we were thrilled to hear that there was a four-way tie for first place between St Josephs, Te Totara and BOTH of Silverdale's Teams! Our two nervous and excited teams participated in a tie-breaker round in order to find the winners. The tensions were high as our teams battled for the top place. Our teams can feel really proud that Silverdale came out in fourth and first place! Our first place winners won a hamper of books as well as a $20 book voucher each.

Our teams should not only be proud of their stellar literacy knowledge but for the way they worked so well as a team, stayed calm and kind under pressure and represented our kura so well.

A special thanks to our amazing librarian, Carla Goudie who helped us source all the books we needed so we could prepare for this event, and for helping us out on the day too.

Both the LitQuiz and Battle of the Books will happen again in 2024, so for any Year 4 or 5 student who loves reading, keep your reading up over the summer and keep an ear out for trials early next year!