Written by: Newberg Graphic, Seth Gordon 

Elementary students compete in head-to-head trivia contests based on 16 pre-assigned books

For many elementary students in Newberg, their main extracurricular activity is a sport, like basketball or soccer.

But for those who aren't particularly drawn to athletics, there aren't necessarily a lot of similar alternatives, especially ones that offer the chance to earn recognition among their peers at school like team sports do.

A growing number, however, have found the same kind of camaraderie and joy by joining Oregon Battle of the Books teams, which compete in head-to-head trivia contests based on 16 pre-assigned books.

This year, not only were there 80 different elementary and middle school teams in the Newberg School District, four elementary school teams placed in the top 10 at the regional tournament Feb. 25 in McMinnville.

"It's an incentive for kids to read," Antonia Crater Elementary School Principal Troy Fisher said. "And it's not just surface level reading. They really have to dig into the book. These questions are so detail oriented that they really have to know their business. That's one thing I like."

The number of teams across the district has grown steadily over the past three years. Crater and Joan Austin Elementary, both of which had more than 10 teams this year, fielded their first teams during the 2014-2015 school year, with Joan Austin's school champion team, the Bookworms, advancing to the state tournament that first season.

Fifth grade teacher Carolyn Davidson launched Joan Austin's program after helping oversee Battle of the Books at her previous school in McMinnville. She believes the success of the Bookworms helped fuel more and more participation the past two years.

"It has really sparked an interest and motivated the students to try really hard every year," Davidson said. "A lot of our schools have placed in the top 16 at district every year, which is great to see."

The schools themselves do a lot to promote the program and each has their own method for determining a school champion that will move on to compete at the regional competition.

Joan Austin, for example, hosts battles after school and keeps track of the results, with the top four teams qualifying for a tournament to determine which one will advance to regionals.

The school district, along with the Newberg Public Library, also hosts a district-wide practice tournament so that teams can both get a feel for the format of the competition and to gauge themselves against teams from other schools.

Most schools make a big deal of the school championship battle in some way or another.

"We have our final battle as an assembly in front of the school," Fisher said. "So it really encourages the kids who might be thinking about doing it the next year and half the list of books is already out so that kids can start reading for next year."

Crater's winning team, the Taco Cats, went on to place third at the regional competition, where the top two teams advance to the state competition.

The team — comprised of fifth-grade students Abby Brown, Mari Weber, CiCi Smith and Sarah Creech — faced and defeated the Joan Austin champion, the Dynamite Dragons, during the regional meet. The Dynamite Dragons (Austin Barry, Gracelyn Heenan, Phineas Kulpa, Jack Harris and Rowan Myers) eventually placed fifth.

Mabel Rush's Book Blazers (Sophia Wong, Ethan Wheatley, Owen Wheatley and Clara Kern) also placed seventh at regionals, with Edwards champions the Reading Geckos (Raymond Greller, Colin Parker, Torin Barnard and Maeve Lockwood) finishing 10th to give the district a strong showing.

Ewing Young's Angry Books Revenge team (Ty Delay, Isabella O'Brien, Alexia White and Jonas Danner) and Dundee champion the Awesome Doritos (Donovan Milstead, Ben Clodfelter, Kota Yamamoto, Josef Moisan, Bailey Lee and Erik Hansen) also competed at regionals, but did not advance out of the preliminary rounds.

Although not quite as popular at the middle school level, both Chehalem Valley and Mountain View fielded several teams, with Drew Sellke, Emerson Hansen, Nikolai Huelsman, Kaitlin McLearn winning the CVMS championship. Kylie Libby, Angelina Simpoo and Merary Ulloa were Mountain View's top team, but neither advanced out of the preliminary rounds at regionals March 18 in Silverton.

The program's ability to make reading fun really fuels its success, both for students and for administrators.

"I like it because you get to read so many amazing books," Fisher's daughter, Ainsley said. "It's a chance to read books that you haven't learned about yet. Some of the books I wouldn't have even thought of reading, but they're really good."

Joan Austin Elementary Principal Terry McElligott likes that the students get to choose how they approach the contest. Some, for example, will split up the book list so that each team member is responsible for knowing four of them really well. Even then, she notes that some students will go ahead and read all 16 books and read them more than once.

She adds that there are social benefits, as teams often spend a lot of time outside of school to practice and that competing in front of other students often helps even shy ones to come out of their shells.

"You see them at the beginning and you see how much better teamwork they have by the end," McElligott said. "They understand what teamwork is. I've moderated some and I don't see kids going, 'Dang! You should have known that.' It's more, 'Oh. We can get 'em next time,' especially if it's during the beginning rounds or a practice. That's a huge part too."

Many parents have also reported drastic changes in their children's attitudes toward reading, which is music to any educator's ears.

"We had parents thank us last year for making reading just as appealing as soccer," Davidson said.