(by Don Meador, Public Relations, Allen County Schools)
Three Junior Beta Club students from the Allen County Intermediate Center (ACIC) finished second in the Book Battle competition at least week’s National Junior Beta Convention in New Orleans. Rising sixth-graders Tristan Fields, Rachel Meador, and Embry Pierce achieved the runner-up honor based on their comprehension of the books they read in the past several months.
“In Book Battle, the students have 12 books to read,” ACIC Junior Beta co-sponsor Taylor Carver explained, “Each student will read four books. They then had a comprehensive test with 100 multiple-choice questions and extended response questions at convention. The students have an hour to complete the test.”
The trio earned the right to compete in New Orleans after finishing second at the Kentucky State Convention last February. Their second-place last week capped off a great fifth grade year for the students.
“It’s a little bit crazy,” noted Fields when asked how it felt to have achieved the honor. “We competed against over 30 teams.”
Fields read Fourteenth Goldfish, Tuck Everlasting, Pictures of Hollis Woods and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
“My favorite was definitely Harry Potter,” Fields noted. “It took me a couple of months to read the books before the state convention and then I re-read two of them.”
Pierce selected the books Holes, The One and Only Ivan, Flora and Ulysses, and Duke to read. His favorite book would be Holes.
“One of my fiends said that Holes started out to slow and I kind of thought that too in the beginning,” Pierce explained. “Whenever I got in the book, it was good book.”
He adds that the test at the national convention was a bit of a challenge.
“Some of the questions were very challenging,” Pierce noted. “But, we were pretty confident that we would place. We were really happy that we did.”
Rachel Meador agrees, noting that the questions and the short response answers were a challenge.
“For me, it was kind of difficult, especially the short answers,” Meador noted. “We also had to agree on which book we wanted to do depending on what the question was. Sometimes it was kind of hard to word the answer depending on what you were going to write.”
Meador read the books Squashed, The Diary of a Young Girl, Number of the Stars, and A Wrinkle in Time. Her favorite was Squashed.
“Squashed was about a girl and she was going through some things,” Meador explained. “She made new friends and came closer to her father. It was an inspirational book.”
The students understand that their achievement is an honor for themselves and the school.
“It feels really good,” Meador added. “I know that our school is really happy. This is a really big honor.”
Fields, Pierce, and Meador are looking forward to competing in Book Battle next year and hope to improve upon their second place in Kentucky at February’s state convention and earn a return trip to the national convention next summer in Florida.