Thirty-two New Hampton students recently participated in a Battle of the Books in the school cafeteria.
    Students had the opportunity to compete in an academic contest, read quality literature, become familiar with great authors, work as a team, perform in front of an audience, develop interest to read for pleasure, polish and reinforce skills, and have fun.
    Test scores were used to determine who would receive an invitation letter to be part of the Battle of the Books. Letters were sent out in December to several students in third through fifth grades. All were required to return the slip after discussing the program with their parents. Thirty-two planned to participate. An informational meeting for parents and students was held to explain the project, receive the list of 19 books and meet with their teams.
    Students could pick up books from the ELP room, school or public libraries, book stores or friends. To help out their team, it was suggested to have each team member read at least four books. No one had to read all of them, unless they chose to. Each team had a chart to help them keep track of what books had been read. Teams met periodically to check on the status of other team members and review books. Some students filled out sheets with information from the books.
    Finally, the day arrived for the Battle of the Books competition. It was held on May 8 in the school cafeteria. Announcements and rules were given before the competition began. All of the team members read several books, and the top readers were acknowledged. They were Brittney Heying, reading 19 books and Althea Throndson, reading 16 books. Christina Burgart, former New Hampton student, read the questions and ELP teacher Linda Burgart collected the answers and kept score. Several parents, teachers, administrators and students attended the competition.
    Three rounds of questions were held. Each round consisted of 19 questions, one question from each book. Teams were allowed to discuss their answers before submitting them in writing. It was a close race all through the competition. In the end, the Red Team had the most correct answers. They called themselves the Rockin’ Readers and won the competition by a narrow margin. The team members were Lexi Rasmussen, Ellie Ewert, Ashlyn Laures, Cole Wildeboer, Katie Tupper, Connor Frerichs, Brittney Heying and Nick Heying. All the teams did a fantastic job and have come out reader winners.  Each participant received a certificate and a bookmark.  The Rockin’ Readers will receive a book of their choice.
    Burgart would like to congratulate the students that participated and read the books. She was pleased to see the excitement about reading in the students.  She said,
    “The students were anxious to talk about the books they read. The day of the competition they were fired up to see if they could win the contest. Kids fired up about books – what more could a teacher ask for?” said Burgart.