Battle of the Books is an Iowa Quad Cities regional competition that involves students reading a wide variety of books. At the competition, there are a series of questions asked about the books’ author, setting, story… There is a level for each grade ranging from third grade to seniors. In addition to Davenport West,  Bettendorf, North Scott, Davenport Central, Davenport North, and Pleasant Valley compete in this literary battle.

West librarian, Jennifer Kizer is the advisor for West’s team. During Falcon Flex sessions throughout the week, participants read and prepare for the competition by having time to read their chosen books. Any student that wants to join will need to see Kizer in the library. The next competition will be Thursday, April 18 at the Bettendorf Public Library.

The competition is a series of questions pertaining to a specific part in one of the books and then competitors answer to the best of their abilities.

“They will give you a question and say ‘which book did this happen?’ and you have to write down the title of the book and the author. You get a point for getting the book right and a point if you also had the author correct.

Kizer and the teams participating, survey and choose books that they read for the competition.

“Each year the Iowa Association of School Librarians puts out a survey to see what teacher, librarians, and students think are the best books of the year. Then they put out the Iowa High School Award winner books,” Kizer said.

Senior Skylar Hintze has competed in Battle of the Books since third grade and it has pushed her to have the best literary mindset.

“Battle of the Books is a fun competition for people who read. It has provided me with more genres that I would want to read with different authors,” Hintze said. “It has helped me find which kind of books and characters I like.”

Junior Anton Kordick has participated in Battle of the Books in the past and has discovered his own way of having fun with the program.

“You have to read a lot of different types of books and some of them are not what you want to read,” Kordick said. “The fun part is answering the questions and remembering details about it. Occasionally you do find some really good book series from it.”