BY VIOLET PENNER
Grade 7 student,
Fulford Community Elementary School
At 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 20, at Fernwood Elementary School, the second of what we hope will be an annual event took place: the Battle of the Books!
Teams of students from grades 3, 4/5 and 6/7 from five different schools — Fulford, Fernwood, Salt Spring Elementary, Mayne and Galiano — answered questions about the books on their pre-assigned reading lists. Whichever team answered the most questions correctly won — but the point was to read and have fun, and victory was a bonus. However, the winning team in each category did receive a prize bag for each student in its ranks.
I’m sure that if you don’t already know, you are wondering who won in each category, and they are as follows: in Grade 3, the team that took the crown was from Mayne Island; one of the participating teams from Fulford Elementary won in the Grade 4/5 category; and finally, the victorious team in Grade 6/7 (who won in a tiebreaker round, by the way) came from Salt Spring Elementary.
Everyone who took part in the event, no matter what placement they ended up in, participated in an ice cream party after the competition.
Thank you to the parents and family members who were invited and encouraged to watch and support the children. There were also several parent volunteers that should be thanked who helped with the event, and it could not have happened without them.
A few organizations also contributed to the event. Salt Spring Public Library, Rainbow Recreation Centre, Country Grocer and Salt Spring Books were all a huge help to the Battle of the Books, whether by sponsoring the event or contributing to the prize bags. A huge thanks to them as well!
However, the largest thanks should be reserved for the teacher/librarians and event coordinators, Amber Thompson and Katie Brown. None of it could have taken place without their dedication and hard work.
The Battle of the Books was an incredibly enjoyable and engaging event. I hope that it will continue to take place so that the children of our school district will be encouraged to expand their literary horizons, make inter-school connections and practise sportsmanship.