PORT ANGELES — Twelve teams of Clallam County fourth-graders will do battle in a competition that wraps up a yearlong collaborative effort at 6:30 tonight.
Battle of the Books 2017 will be at the Port Angeles Library at 2210 S. Peabody St. The project is a collaboration between the North Olympic Library System — which oversees public libraries in Port Angeles, Sequim, Forks and Clallam Bay — and the Port Angeles, Sequim, Quillayute Valley and Crescent school districts and Queen of Angels Catholic School.
Throughout the year, more than 200 fourth-graders participated in the program. Each received free copies of the five books read as part of the project. Each student also received a T-shirt featuring art created by a fellow student during a design contest held last year.
This year’s participating schools include Jefferson, Greywolf, Forks Intermediate, Olympic Peninsula Academy, Helen Haller, Franklin, Roosevelt, Queen of Angels, Crescent, Dry Creek and Hamilton elementary schools.
This year for the first time, a home-schooled team is participating as well.
For five months prior to the final competition, library staff led book club discussions at each of the schools to support and encourage student reading.
Books read during the year included “The Fourteenth Goldfish” by Jennifer L. Holm, “How to Steal a Dog” by Barbara O’Connor, “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio, “City of Ember” by Jeanne DuPrau and “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia. The competition will include trivia questions about each book.
“The program is designed to encourage kids to be lifelong readers,” said Jennifer Knight, youth services librarian. “We want reading to be fun. Having a Battle of the Books program is a way to cultivate that.”
The Battle of the Books program is supported by the Port Angeles Friends of the Library, the Friends of the Sequim Library and the Friends of the Forks Library.
For information about this and other programs for youths, visit the library website at www.nols.org; contact the Youth Services Department of the Port Angeles Library at 360-417-8500, ext. 7705; or send an email to youth@nols.org.
