Snoqualmie win, the sequel: SES team repeats performance, claims Book Battle trophy, again | Photo gallery

For the second year in a row, Snoqualmie Elementary School readers claimed the Battle of the Books championship and trophy. The team of Emma Duim (captain), Vicky Copeland, Taylor Talbott, Abbigal Triou and Grace Wendlick bested the top teams from Cascade View, North Bend, Fall City, and Opstad in the annual district-wide contest, held Friday, April 27 at North Bend Elementary School. As always, the final Battle was a tense affair, the culmination of months of dedicated reading and memorization, and multiple rounds of elimination at each elementary to designate a school champ.

By Carol Ladwig • May 4, 2012 11:40 am

For the second year in a row, Snoqualmie Elementary School readers claimed the Battle of the Books championship and trophy.

The team of Emma Duim (captain), Vicky Copeland, Taylor Talbott, Abbigal Triou and Grace Wendlick bested the top teams from Cascade View, North Bend, Fall City, and Opstad in the annual district-wide contest, held Friday, April 27 at North Bend Elementary School.

As always, the final Battle was a tense affair, the culmination of months of dedicated reading and memorization, and multiple rounds of elimination at each elementary to designate a school champ.

Participating students read up to 14 books selected by the elementary librarians for the competition. The books were announced last spring, giving the competitors, third through fifth graders, almost a full year to read them all, although each needed to have only three read by the time they signed up for teams in January.

Many teams enthusiastically took on the challenge this year. Fall City, for example, fielded nearly 20 teams in early rounds of competition, but the mainly-boys team, the Alpha Books, won the school championship to advance to the district final.

North Bend Librarian Lisa Radmer quizzed the five-member teams on characters, descriptions, and actions from each of the books.

Inspired team members leaned into huddles to share their answers. When inspiration didn’t strike, they thought harder and harder, fidgeted, shook heads, patted tummies, or quietly despaired, head in hands.

Audience members, comprised of other Battle teams from each school, eliminated in earlier rounds of competition, and smiling, photo-snapping parents, cheered loudly and waved banners with every correct answer in the contest, prompting several reminders from the officiating librarians for quiet.

This year’s book list included 11 Birthdays, Out of the Dust, Honus and Me, My Life as a Book, Gregor the Overlander, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Wait Till Helen Comes, Small Steps, Eleven, Extra Credit, Ragweed, War Horse, The Boy Who Spoke Dog, The Door in the Lake.