Tuesday morning was the Championship round for Haines school’s Tournament of the Readers.  Only two teams were still standing after a nearly month-long tournament that comprised of eight teams.  The Tournament is open to grades three through eight.  As KHNS’s Jenn Shelton reports, The battle for the crown was between a third grade team, The Wild Readers, against an undefeated team of sixth graders, The Literary Llamas.

 

Last week’s double header event in the Haines School’s Tournament of the Readers decided both the third place team and who would compete in the final championship round on February 20th.  

The Library Legends bested the Book Gobblers last Tuesday, but then lost to the Wild Readers, earning the Legends a third place overall finished.  The Library Legends are a fourth grade team made up of Piper, Leon, Thomas and Sam.

The victory over the Legends earned the Wild Readers, a third grade team made up of Hazel, Loralai, Zephyr and Olen, a spot in the final against the undefeated Literary Llamas.  The Llamas are a sixth grade team made up of Meg, Ivy, Gwendolyn and Asher.  

Questions are drawn randomly from the Questions Envelope.  This year’s questions were written by the tournament’s organizers, Karen Garcia, Holly Davis and school librarian Leigh Horner.  Each team has been studying the same eight books since November.  The books were chosen by organizers, and the questions are not particular to grade level.  Every team of four, no matter their grade, pulls from the same envelope.

Leigh Horner created the Tournament of the Readers for Haines Schools nearly two decades ago.  She bases the Tournament loosely off the statewide Battle of the Books reading incentive program. But each year the Tournament features a different set of books and has its own set of Rules and Regulations, created by Horner.  

One of the author’s of this year’s books, Fairest of All, will be visiting the Haines Public Library in May.  Sarah Mlynowski is a NY Times Bestselling author, and one of her series, The Upside-Down Magic Series was adapted into a Disney Channel movie.  She has written books for teenagers and adults, as well.  She will be a guest for the library’s Summer Reading Program, and the library carries almost all of her books.

Horner told KHNS that the model for Battle of the Books does not work for Haines schools, which is why she has gone rogue.  Battle of the Books charges schools $400 to participate and requires schools to buy their own sets of books to participate in the state-wide competition.  Also, in Battle of the Books, teams only compete against their own grade.  For example, fifth graders compete against fifth graders. Then, the winner of the school district’s fifth grade teams competes in the State Competition.  But Haines School District only has one fifth grade class.  So they would compete in the State competition without any experience ever having battled any other teams.

Horner says she stages the tournament every year in February, because that’s when the weather is cruddy.  And while the Battle of the Books is held after school and over the weekends, Horner sticks to school hours.  This allows for students who take the bus to participate.

After the final of this year’s tournament, the Wild Reader’s lost to the undefeated Library Llamas, who finished with a perfect record.  The Llamas have been competing together since third grade, and this is their first tournament victory. Cash prizes were donated by Suzanne and Norm Smith.

The Wild Readers will have a chance to win again next February.  Next year’s event will have an official rule changer.  The Default Rule states that, “Any team which does not appear for a round will automatically default to the team which was to be its opponent.” 

But Horner said that this rule doesn’t always work for Haines schools, because sometimes teams are away for school ski trips.  And the Tournament of Readers, with a twenty year history, is continually striving for inclusivity.