By Tina Covington / For The Onlooker
BAY MINTETTE, Alabama — Bay Minette Intermediate School won the sixth annual “Battle of the Books” competition and bragging rights for the next year.
The team was led by Gail Richerson, media specialist, and included Dakota Brown, Destiny Brown, Bernardos Daniels, Kailey Fisher, Laneria Hart, Blake Marchman, Dominic Partin, Jalayasia Scott, Terry Spillman, Na’Davion Steele, Cassidy Watson, Hannah White and Shamyia Whittle.
Rounding out the places included Perdido School, second place; Bay Minette Middle, third place; and Delta Elementary, fourth place.
The North Baldwin Battle of the Books is an annual reading competition open to all fifth to eighth grade students in the Baldwin County High School feeder pattern. Participating schools read chapter books provided by a grant from the North Baldwin Coalition for Excellence in Education.
This year’s titles included “Just a Dog,” “Found,” “A Long Way from Chicago,” “Wonder,” and “On My Honor.”
Throughout the school year, the students discuss and study these books in relation to genre, plot, setting, theme and characterization. The student also learn about literary elements such as similar, metaphor, personification, idiom and point of view.
The librarians at the schools provide the teams with coaching sessions during the school day and also set up a Moodle site for students to do on-line assignments outside of school. To be a member of the school’s Battle of the Books team, the students must take personal initiative to do the preparation work in addition to classroom studies, organizers said.
All that hard work culminates in the Battle of the Books question and answer competition held each spring at Baldwin County High School Library. Students must answer questions involving literacy skills, vocabulary and character pop-up questions.
In addition to NBCEE, additional Battle of the Books sponsors include Bay Minette Recreation Center, Pepsi Bottling Company in Atmore, Piggly Wiggly in Bay Minette, Stockton Five Arts Club, Strickland Orthodonics and Drs. Tillery and Tyrell.
Judges included Joanna Bailey, director of Bay Minette Public Library; Tina Covington, North Baldwin Coalition for Excellence in Education; and David Cox, Baldwin County School Board.