AkASL Battle of the Books - Alaska Library Association

AkASL Battle of the Books
by Shelly Logsdon
Congratulations to the winners of 2007-2008 State Battle of the Books! During the week of February 18
over 44 Alaska School Districts, 141 teams, competed for top honors at their grade level.
PHOTOS OF
OUR
2008
FIRST
PLACE
CHAMPS!
Glacier Valley Elementary
(Juneau School District)
Coach: Chris Trostel
Team: Kenny Conneen, Jack Withington,
Adriana Botelho, Liam Crossett
p. 8
SEVENTH/EIGHTH GRADE
Nikiski Middle/High School
(Kenai Peninsula Borough
School District)
Coach: Nora Ribbens
Team: Daniel Ribbens, Josh Croze,
Annaleah Ernst, Jesse Ross
FIFTH/SIXTH
1st Place: TIE
THIRD/FOURTH GRADE TEAMS
Galena City/IDEA District
Coach: Janice Habermann
Team: Kalbe Korta, Alexandra Armstrong,
Melissa Hilchie, Jessica Rentz
John Apangalook
School (Bering Strait
School District)
Coach: Shannon Lemcke
Team: Irene Apassingok,
Aayi Apassingok,
Kristina Apassingok, Ollin Apatiki
For the runners-up in
these hard fought battles,
see the AkASL Battle of
the Books website:
http://www.akla.org/
akasl/bb/bbhome.html
The Puffin, Spring 2008 v27, #3

AkASL Battle of the Books
First HALL of FAME
Inductees:
HIGH SCHOOL 1st Place:
Kotzebue Jr./Sr HS (NW Arctic)
***4th State Championship
in a row***
Coach: SUE ATKINS
All Star Team::
✶ REID MAGDANZ
✶ QUINN ITEN
✶ DONALD NEAL
R
The Long and Varied
History of Donnie and Reid,
And Their Many Trials and
Endeavours In the
Battle of the Books
By Donnie Neil,
Kotzebu High School Student
Reid and I have been on the same battle
of the books team since third grade. I just
counted on my fingers. That’s ten years.
We made it to state that first year, in third
grade. We made it again in fourth grade. In
fifth grade we fell prey to a local team (they
had the battle while I wasn’t there). In sixth
grade we made it to the final round for
the first time. We lost when we missed this
question: “In which book does a character
have eyes that open like a butterfly’s wings.”
We didn’t know so we answered with The
Green Book because there are these big
moth people. It was actually MY TEACH-
ER IS AN ALIEN by Bruce Coville.
In seventh grade we won. That year we had
an outstanding lineup of books including
WILD MAGIC by Tamora Pierce THE
LOST YEARS OF MERLIN by T.A. Baron,
and THE LEGEND OF LUKE by Brian
Jacques. Reid and I teamed up with Sam
Lee and Jesse Howell and came out victorious.
In eighth grade we lost by one question.
We know this because we stayed on the
line afterward and answered every single
question. If we had received credit for that
challenge, we’d have won. That question
was “In which book do a character’s ears
pound with the sound of no water?” We
answered with STORMBREAKER by
Anthony Horowitz. It was THE THIEF by
Megan Whalen Turner.
In ninth grade we won again, this time
with Katie on our team. She carried us
through the district competition when
neither Reid nor I knew the answer to a
question about all the lights going out in
a bathroom. She remembered that it was
BIRDS OF PREY by J.A. Jance.
In tenth grade we didn’t have anyone to
be on our team. No one but us. Reid and
I still were able to grind out a tie between
us and the three seniors from the IDEA
school in Galena. After the normal set of
16 questions in the final round, we went
through an additional ten tiebreaker questions.
Those ten questions didn’t break the
tie, and we ended up Co-Champions with
the IDEA Galena Girls. It didn’t break our
streak so we didn’t mind.
Last year Reid, Quinn, and I were together
on the team, and with our secret weapon:
Quinn (who has nothing to do out at camp
when he isn’t running dogs, feeding dogs,
splitting wood, riding horses, repairing
dogsleds, hauling water, and preparing
2007-2008
for the Iditarod). As I said, since he has
nothing to do, he reads the books nonstop,
again and again and again. I usually
get through them three times. Reid gets
through some of them three times (but he
writes loads of questions), and Quinn gets
through all of them four times or more.
With Quinn on our team we won handily
(though still by a narrow margin). The final
question was “In which book does a character
have hands that looked like something
grown from the earth and a nose that
changed direction three times?” Reid had
written the question himself. It was THE
BEEKEEPERS APPRENTICE by Laurie R.
King. Three in a row!
Then we started wondering, could we do
it? Could it be done? Could someone win
the state championship four years in a row?
Their entire high school career? If you
want to know the answer, refer to the top
of the page.
If you want to corroborate my information
with cold hard facts you can check out the
07-08 state battle results page here: http://
akla.org/akasl/bb/hsresults.htm
Well, I think I’m going to go read something.
The Puffin, Spring 2008 v27, #3 p. 9

AkASL Battle of the Books
by Shelly Logsdon
2008-2009 Battle of the Books
- Where it all starts
This is the beginning of each year’s contest. Volunteer
librarians read a LOT of books. They nominate some of
them to be considered for the next year’s list.
At the annual AkLA Conference/AkASL Battle of the
Books Meeting, proposed lists and books are gone over
with a fine tooth comb. Too easy? Too hard? Interesting
reading? Been on the list before? Appropriate for age
level? These and many more questions are asked about
each book.
After much discussion and contemplation, the draft list
for each grade level is chosen.
p. 10
AkASL
Alaska Association of
School Librarians
SPECIAL THANKS to all our Battle
of the Books volunteer moderators
and judges from all over the state who
helped make the Battles a success!!
Anchorage—Melissa Olson, Nicole
Roohi, Sue Sherif, Heidi Tsukada
Copper River-Ann Baur, Kelly Bigelow
Galena—Genny Brown, Debbie Mackie
Kenai—Tanya Boedeker, Sheri Legg
Ketchikan-Adell Bruns
Kodiak—Laurie Madsen
Lower Kuskokwim-Suzanne Richards
Mat-Su—Janet Blalock, Bonnie Cavanaugh,
Sandy Krueger,Terri Paulson,
Wendy Stout, Diony Tribble, Jeanne
Troshynski
Nenana-Christina Krause
North Slope-Adam Dubinsky, Mike Jeffery,
Sara Jeffress, Mike Wetherbee
Northwest Arctic-Sue West
Sitka-Erika Drain, Lois Rhodes
The Puffin, Spring 2008 v27, #3