Last week, I gave a ride to a friendly fifth-grader who was meeting up with his team to practice for the Battle of the Books competition.
What is Battle of the Books, you may ask? There are “battles” all over the country, and everyone is different, but for the National Writers Series version, there are 53 teams of area kids who study eight books over three months and then meet up for a day’s worth of activities and book quizzes.
One of the benefits of offering educational opportunities to students is getting to know the students. Or, to put it more simply, you just never know when a big welcome smile is going to come your way and from whom.
Looking for a way to break the ice on the car ride, I asked him what he did for fun. Wrestling was his answer.
I asked him if it’s hard to stay in his weight class, and he told me it’s no problem. He stops eating when he’s full, and then he mentioned something about burps and farts, which I didn’t quite get. But it was interesting. I told him that when I was little, my brother had the nickname of Farty because he farted so much.
The young student looked at me like, “Really, lady?!”
My story went on for another minute, as I explained that things once got really stinky on a trip to Florida when my brother ate way too many oranges just before we drove back to Michigan in a too-small car. Everyone got mad, but my brother just thought it was funny.
My new friend cracked up, and I silently thanked my odiferous brother for the memory. The battler hopped out of the car and went in to join his team. They appeared to be a tight-knit group who enjoyed an afternoon of battle bingo and making a poster.
I’ve learned that education happens on and off the page. How we treat each other is always an example of how we learn together, both as adults and as young people. We strive to be engaging, such as during the kick-off for Battle of the Books at the Traverse Area District Library, where students got to launch rockets up to the ceiling and figure out a maze with blind folds on. Each activity is a clue to the book they’ll get to read, and each one is a moment of team and confidence-building. For many of the kids, the battle is their first time they’ve ever joined a team or heard cheers from an adoring audience–for reading books, no less!
Tomorrow, April 11, is the big day when 53 teams compete against each other at Traverse West Senior High School. It’s an all-day affair and opens to the public in the afternoon, when a famous author talks to the kids about a book he wrote that most of the battlers have read.
Our guest this year is Dion Leonard, an international bestselling author and a world-class ultramarathon competitor. You’ll find him in the auditorium, starting his presentation at 1:20 p.m. and again at 2:10 p.m.
Back in 2016, Leonard was getting back into racing after a six-month injury. He thought, inexplicably, that racing 155 miles across the scorching Gobi Desert would be a good way to ease back into things. On the second day of the run, a dusty little dog decided to tag along beside him.
Now Leonard was and still is a very competitive runner, and had to weigh the pros and cons of making a new dog friend. For one, he had to consider the risk of sharing his limited supply of food and water that would sustain him for the seven-day race. On the other hand, a little dog doesn’t eat all that much. He caved.
Then, at the end of the long race, after bonding with the little dog whom he named Gobi, he had to decide whether to adopt her, even knowing the massive hassle and expense of flying her to Scotland, where he lived with his wife, Lucja.
Well, he did that, too.
If you’ve ever tried to fly a dog into a different country, you likely know there are a zillion rules to comply with. But early on in Gobi’s international journey, she mysteriously disappeared.
Leonard, by this time, was back in Scotland. Worried and anxious about his missing pup, he decided he would fly back to China to search for her. The tale of losing his racing buddy became an international media sensation that, fortunately, ended happily. Later, Leonard wrote Finding Gobi, about his found-and-lost adventure.
He and Lucja, his wife, will also talk at a mainstage event on Monday (April 13) about the book, their life with Gobi, and the art of running ultramarathons. The guest host is Janice Beyer. A runner herself, she chairs the board of the Traverse City Track Club, the largest running club in all of Michigan. The event will take place at Traverse City Central High School at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
So, back to the NWS Battle of the Books and why we think it’s important. Kids who spend 12 hours a week reading for fun have a much better chance of success, academically, emotionally, and behaviorally in later grades. A study of 10,243 participants conducted by researchers in the UK and China (and first published in Psychological Medicine) concluded these frequent readers tend to physically develop bigger brains, which is the likely explanation.
Our hope is that the Battle of the Books steers students toward that 12-hour mark forever and ever. The books are chosen to accommodate all different reading levels, so that any child can participate. We also hope that reading these books opens their minds. They often offer glimpses of children who have walked unique and challenging paths. My favorite this year is “The Wrong Way Home,” a novel about a young girl who is forcefully made to leave her isolated, beloved community called “The Ranch,” only to gradually come to understand her former home wasn’t exactly as it seemed.
Finally, thanks to super generous donors, grantors, and valiant volunteers, Battle of the Books is free to kids. And if a team doesn’t have a guardian available to coach, no problem. NWS finds a coach for them.
Come join the fun, and consider turning off the TV a few nights a week and reading just for fun, too!