D202 High Schools To Host Inaugural Battle Of The Books

PLAINFIELD, IL — Four Plainfield high schools are participating in the inaugural Battle of the Books on March 26.

For the reading competition, teams will read five Abraham Lincoln Award-nominated books and answer detailed questions about them during in-school competitions.

Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 middle schools have hosted Battle of the Books for more than a decade, with Timber Ridge Middle School winning the championship last month.

Lisa Marcum, the lead media specialist for District 202 and Plainfield Central High School, said first-year students come to high school and are disappointed to find no Battle of the Books competitions. Last year, she set out to change that by testing the competition at her high school last year with 115 students who formed 26 teams.

"We want to continue the love of reading from middle school," Marcum said, adding that it allows students to shine outside an athletic arena. "It is so cool to see kids competing about reading."

About 75 teams at all four high schools competed in the preliminary rounds, and Plainfield South, North and East high schools will each send two teams to the high school finals at Plainfield Central.

Aggie Ferris, a media specialist at Indian Trail Middle School, said the competition also helps to remind students that reading and libraries are for more than just research and can be fun.

"We teach children to love and value reading in elementary school and middle school with beautiful picture books, or emotionally compelling narratives, but when they get to high school, the emphasis is on informative texts," Ferris said.