Students from four Hazelwood middle schools squared off against fellow students from around the metropolitan area in the fourth annual Area-wide Book Battle at Pattonville Heights Middle School.<\/p>\n
The book battle is a trivia-night styled event in which teams of six students answer questions based on a pre-designated list of 20 books. This year\u2019s list included such high-interest books as \u201cNinth Grade Slays,\u201d by local author Heather Brewer and \u201cThe Mysterious Benedict Society\u201d by Trenton Lee Smith. The battle allows students to meet and discuss current books that interest them with peers they might not otherwise get to meet.<\/p>\n
There were 34 teams and each team could score as many as 120 points. The Hazelwood West Middle Wildcats tied for eighth place with 103 points while the Hazelwood Central Middle Golden Eagles and Hazelwood Northwest Middle Knights tied for 16th<\/sup> place with 89 points. The Hazelwood North Middle Panthers placed 18th<\/sup> with 79 points.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough my team from North did not place high in the standings, I was excited to have students who had an opportunity to read and discuss books,\u201d said Hazelwood North Middle librarian Mary Ruebusch. \u201cThe majority of my team was sixth graders and most of them were boys.\u00a0I think that is the one thing about this team that I will remember. I am looking forward to watching them over the next years in middle school.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI liked competing; it seemed fun,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Saavedra, a sixth grade student at Hazelwood North Middle. \u201cI liked all of the good books we read.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnwind\u201d by Neal Shusterman was a favorite read by many on the Panthers. \u201cIt\u2019s suspenseful, scary and it keeps you wanting more,\u201d said Saavedra. \u201cI look for that in a book.\u201d<\/p>\n Classmate Ian Sovar agreed. \u201cThere was one part where one dude got unwound and it was real creepy.\u201d<\/p>\n Saavedra said Brewer\u2019s book, \u201cNinth Grade Slays,\u201d was nearly as good. \u201cYou didn\u2019t know what was going to happen next; it was so different.\u201d<\/p>\n Sovar found other book battle features to enjoy. \u201cI liked that so many people came together and read books and studied about them. They actually got into reading.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexis Knighten, another sixth grade student, also liked \u201cUnwind\u201d the best of the books they read, calling it \u201cadventurous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite was actually going to the competition. I thought it was fun and it was good for me. I was excited when I made the team,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Middle school librarians talked about their students\u2019 abilities and what the students get out of an event like this.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so very pleased with the way my students performed as a team,\u201d said Stephanie Slusher, Hazelwood Central Middle\u2019s librarian.\u00a0\u201cThere was a definite learning curve from Round One to the rest of the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur students benefit so much from recognition for being outstanding readers,\u201d said Stacey McMackin, Hazelwood West Middle\u2019s librarian.\u00a0\u201cHaving book reading become a \u2018team\u2019 sport gives it a panache that makes them feel proud.\u00a0All of our Hazelwood students deserve the chance to be recognized for outstanding academic and literacy work and our Book Battle team members have fun and get rewarded for their achievement through this venue.\u201d<\/p>\n When you look at a big room of kids all reading 20 books it was impressive, regardless of points or how we scored,\u201d said Ruebusch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students from four Hazelwood middle schools squared off against fellow students from around the metropolitan area in the fourth annual Area-wide Book Battle at Pattonville Heights Middle School. The book battle is a trivia-night styled event in which teams of six students answer questions based on a pre-designated list of 20 books. This year\u2019s list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n