May 20, 2015 3 min read

What do you get when you mix fourth-graders, a book club and a competition?

Wylandville Elementary School’s Battle of the Books.

Forty-two students on 11 teams are participating in the six-week reading program, where they read four novels selected from some of the best works published for children.

Students, in teams of three or four and led by a parent volunteer, have been reading different genres, and books include “The Hundred Dresses” by Eleanor Estes and a biography of Johnny Appleseed.

At the end of the six weeks, teams will seek the Battle of the Books championship by recalling information from the books they have read.

All seven of Canon-McMillan’s elementary schools participate in Battle of the Books, but each building runs the program differently, according to the interests, needs and abilities, said fourth-grade teacher Alicia Patton. She organizes the event with fourth-grade teacher Kristy Chavez and reading support teacher April Lowden.

At Wylandville, each team has a captain who is responsible for making sure each team member gets and reads the assigned books.

The teams have met weekly, usually in the home of the parent volunteer, to review the books.

“They’re excited about it. They’re really enthusiastic, and the discussions we’ve had show that they’ve read the books and have a lot to contribute,” said Jodi DeLong, who is the parent leader for her daughter Erin’s team. “I haven’t had any problem with them finishing them.”

DeLong is a fourth-grade teacher in Bethel Park School District and said she “appreciates what they’re trying to do with Battle of the Books.”

“It’s unique for me to be on the other side, as a parent. I thought, ‘What a neat idea to come up with your own teams,” said DeLong. “It gives them more ownership.”

The Battle of the Books began in the 1930s as a radio program sponsored by Chicago Public Schools and a local department store.

In 1988, a former participant who became a school librarian reconstructed Battle of the Books as a reading incentive program that is used today in elementary, middle and high schools.

Wylandville’s Battle of the Books concludes today with the championship competition.

But that doesn’t mean that the students will stop reading.

“We love to read,” said Erin DeLong of her teammates on The Rainbow Halos. “Actually, we’re writing our own books.”

And someday, maybe students will be reading one of The Rainbow Halos’ books for Battle of the Books.