Battle of the Books

2015/2016

What is BOB

• Battle of the Books (BOB) is an exciting type of reading club that uses

a game show format to challenge teams’ knowledge of literature.

• There are eight pre-selected books from a variety of authors and

genres.

• Teams of students are asked questions based on the characters, plots,

themes, and settings of the books.

• Points are scored by correctly identifying the titles and authors of the

books.

Team Composition• Students from grades to 5 to 8 are eligible to participate.

• Maximum of 4 students per team

• Teams are responsible for creating a team name.

• In order to be inclusive, team substitutions (a 5th person) will be permitted

during the zone tournaments and city finals. This may occur only in special

circumstances whereby a team dissolves prior to zones and leaves one

member who wishes to compete.

• After the 3rd question, the 5th person subs in and a team member comes

out. After the next 3 questions, a different team member rotates (continue

repeating until all team members have had to rotate out and then begin

again).

Zone Groupings and Tournaments

THE Books

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

In a future where the Population Police enforce

the law limiting a family to only two children,

Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and

fear on his family’s farm, until another “third”

convinces him that the government is wrong.[BL 4.8; MG; 160 p.]

*click on book for video

About the Author• Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm near Washington Court

House, Ohio.

• Before her first book was published, she worked as a newspaper copy

editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana; a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis; and a

community college instructor and freelance writer in Danville, Illinois.

• She has since written more than 30 books for kids and teens

• Her books have been honored with New York Times bestseller status, the

International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award;

• They have also been translated into more than twenty different languages.

http://www.haddixbooks.com/home.html

Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Colossus Rises SEVEN WONDERS Series BOOK 1

by Peter Lerangis

Teens Jack, Marco, Aly, and Cass begin a quest to

find seven pieces of Atlantis’s power that were

hidden long ago and that will, if returned to

Atlantis, save them from death due to the genetic

abnormality that also gives them superior abilities.[BL 4.1; MG; 348 p.]

*click on book for video

About the Author• The author of more than one hundred and sixty books, which

have sold more than five and half million copies and been translated into twenty-eight different languages,

• The Colossus Rises, the first book in the New York Times Bestselling series Seven Wonders, and two books in the 39 Clues series.

• Peter is a Harvard graduate with a degree in biochemistry.

• He has run a marathon and gone rock climbing during an earthquake - though not on the same day.

• He lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their two sons, Nick and Joe.

• In his spare time, he likes to eat chocolate.

http://www.sevenwondersbooks.com/

Peter Lerangis

Seven Wonders Series

Book 2 Book 3 Book 4

Counting by 7sby Holly Goldberg Sloan

Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow

Chance must figure out how to connect with

other people and find a surrogate family for

herself after her parents are killed in a car

accident. [BL 5.6; MG; 380 p.]

*click on book for video

About the Authorhttp://hollygoldbergsloan.com/

• Find out who the book is dedicated to!

• Perhaps you know someone who has a cat named Cheddar?

• Where is Bakersfield California?

• Find the answers to these questions and more at the author’s website. (select Counting by 7’s from the homepage)

Curse of the Dream Witch by Allan Stratton (Willow Nominee)

The Dream Witch haunts the forest beyond

the kingdom of Bellumen, waiting to collect

on a horrible debt owed by the king and

queen–the heart of their only daughter,

Princess Olivia. Until she has it, none of the

kingdom’s children are safe.[BL 4.3; MG; 265 p.]

*click on book for video

About the Author• The author is an internationally acclaimed author his work has

won awards: Michael L. Printz Honour Book, his film won the

Francois Chalais Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival.

• His most recent novel, The Grave Robber's Apprentice, was

nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award.

• Allan lives in Toronto, Ontario with his four cats and numerous

fish.

• What are the Willow Awards? The mission of The Willow Awards is to promote reading

by granting a "Willow Award" to the Canadian and/or Saskatchewan book(s) voted by Saskatchewan students

to be the best of those nominated in designated categories for a specific year.

Author website: www.allanstratton.com

Willow Awards: http://www.willowawards.ca/index.php/about-us

Allan Stratton

The False PrinceBook 1 of the Ascendance Trilogy

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The thrilling first book of an exciting trilogy. In the country of

Carthya, a devious nobleman Connor engages four orphans in a brutal

competition to be selected to impersonate the king’s long-missing son

in an effort to avoid a civil war. Layer upon layer of treachery and

deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very

well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

This is an extraordinary adventure filled with danger and action, lies

and deadly truths! seats.

[BL 5.1; MG; 342 p.]

*click on book for video

Ascendance Trilogy

About the Author• New York Times Bestselling author

• Born and raised in northern Utah, where she still lives today with her husband, three children, and a dog that won’t play fetch.

• In 6th grade she wrote a full-length story about a girl who becomes trapped in her daydreams and that world becomes real. She even called a locksmith to do research on how to pick locks. When he found out she was only 11, he ended the call and the story got set aside, unfinished.

• She always loved reading, she loved the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown series’, but her favorite childhood book was The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.

• Her favorite book in junior high was The Outsiders. That book’s author, S.E. Hinton, published The Outsiders at the age of 17. Jennifer set a goal to be published sooner.

• She published her first book in her early 20’s.

• She loves chocolate, old books, and lazy days in the mountains.

• To find out more about the author visit: http://www.jennielsen.com/

Jennifer Nielsen

The Red Kayakby Priscilla Cummings

First hailed as a hero for his dramatic water

rescue of a little boy, thirteen-year-old Brady

soon makes a discovery that puts him at the

heart of a tragedy. Alone with his dark secret,

Brady is forced to choose between his friends

and the right thing.[BL 4.9; MG+; 209 p.]

About the Author• The author was a newspaper reporter, magazine writer and editor prior to

writing her first book Chadwick the Crab.

• Her first book was inspired from her move Maryland where she saw her first blue crab.

• Over the years, I wrote several more picture books about animals: Baron von Heron, Toulouse the Canada Goose, Hector Spector Jellyfish, Orville the Oyster and Bernie the Sea Gull

• As a child her favorite literature was a Nancy Drew mystery or a book that featured a horse. She had very few books of her own, but the most treasured one, Charlotte’s Web, remains on her bookshelf today.

• Her stories were inspired by something in real life that moved her emotionally

• Today, her home is in Annapolis, Maryland with her family.

• She has a small sailboat and a green canoe, but no red kayaks.

• She has two cats named Mr. Charles Bingley (Mr. B. for short) and Romeo.

http://www.priscillacummings.com/

Priscilla Cummings

Rocket BluesRocket Blues Series

by David Skuy(Willow Nominee)

The Huskies new coach is deciding that brawn is better than brains. He wants

big players, not high skill players like Rocket. Rocket is cut from the Huskies.

He now has to deal with all the problems he’s been ignoring for years: his

reputation at school, the gangs, the poverty – and most of all, whether his

hockey dream is actually nothing more than a pipe dream.

Rocket doesn’t want to quit. But what do you do when everything seems

stacked against you?

Rocket Blues – for kids who don’t like to be told what to do!

[BL 4.1; MG; 236 p.]

*click on book for video

Read the sequel… Last Shot to see what is in Rocket’s hockey future!

About the Author

• The author is a lawyer, writer, and Leafs fan to the core.

• He spent most of his childhood playing some sport or another and

what he remembers most is the intensity, the competitiveness, and

the sheer enjoyment of playing a sport you love when you're young.

• He has written five books in the Game Time series, as well the

standalone novel Undergrounders, which won the Silver Birch

Award.

• He lives in Toronto, Ontario with his family.

Author website: www.davidskuy.com

David Skuy

Game Time Series

The Rocket Blues Series The Striker Series

Other series by the author: The Charlie Joyce Hockey Series

Silver Birch Award

Winner

Waveby Eric Walters

It's December 2004 and Sam and his parents are leaving

frostbitten Ontario for a vacation in lush, sun-soaked Thailand.

Sam's sister Beth is staying behind. She drives her family to the

airport to bid them farewell, not knowing that what awaits them

is a natural disaster of unimaginable proportions.

Over the next few days, Sam will find himself thrust into the

very centre of a crisis he could never have anticipated, one that

will test his instinct to survive.

About the Author• Eric was born in Toronto in 1957, which makes him "real old". But, as Eric says,

"Just because I have to grow old doesn't mean that I have to grow up!“

• In his many roles as parent, teacher, social worker, youth sports coach and writer he is in constant contact with children and young adults. He draws from these experiences and feels that this helps him to capture the realistic interaction between young people - the conflicts, tensions, stresses and interests that make up their lives.

• Eric began his writing as a teacher. He taught in classes from kindergarten up and his stories often reflect the curriculum that he was teaching.

• He always read stories - picture books and novels - to his students and this helped him to understand what children liked, responded to, and were inspired by.

• He enjoys the enthusiasm of his students and often looks at them to provide him with the inspiration to pursue a particular topic in both the classroom and in his writing.

Author website: http://www.ericwalters.net/

Eric Walters