Welcome to the Battle of the Books!

Battle of the Books is a fun, friendly competition where teams of students read books from a specified list and then compete in a trivia contest based on those books.

Reading List for 2013

You can get your grade level reading list from this site, or see your school library media specialist. Here are the links to the books we’ll be reading this year grouped by grade level. You can also rate these books and leave comments about what you are reading.

3-5 Grade Reading List
6-8 Grade Reading List
9-12 Grade Reading List

Book titles for the SDPBC Battle of the Books come from the Sunshine State Young Readers Award and the Florida Teens Read lists. Titles for these state-sponsored reading programs are selected annually by a committee of library media specialists from across the State of Florida. Participating schools promote the books all year then have their students vote electronically in the spring for their favorite title. The winners of each division are announced at the FAME conference. The titles for the next fiscal year are posted in the late spring of each year. 

You can read the full details of the Battle of the Books at this link. Contest Guidelines
 
The Battle of the Books is a reading motivation and comprehension book-related competition for students in grades 3 – 12 and is sponsored by The School District of Palm Beach with incentive programs provided by the Departments of K-12 Instructional Materials and Library Media Services and Educational Technology.
The goals of the program are to:
  • encourage students who enjoy reading
  • recognize students who demonstrate knowledge and comprehension of books
  • broaden reading interests by exposing students to a variety of genre
  • promote collaboration and team work
  • promote recreational reading
  • promote creative thinking and problem solving
  • promote healthy competition based on mutual respect
  • promote academic excellence and the highest student achievement
  • promote the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards Books and the Florida Teens Read Books
District's Grand Battle in May. At the District's Grand Battle, the first-place team for each of the three levels carries home a traveling trophy to house at their school until the next year’s Battle. The team members' names and school are also added to the perpetual trophy housed at Fulton Holland Education Service Center.
History of the Battle of the Books
The term 'Battle of the Books' first appeared in a satire written by Jonathan Swift at the end of the seventeenth century in France. Swift wrote in response to an ongoing argument over the question of whether contemporary learning, supported by 'the moderns', had surpassed that of learning during the Classical Age in Greece and Rome, a position supported by 'the ancients'.
Swift's short satire entitled "The Battle of the Books" (1705) centered around an epic battle fought in a library when various books come alive and attempt to settle the arguments between moderns and ancients. In Swift's satire, he avoids saying which argument is correct. He portrays the manuscript as having been damaged in places, thus leaving the end of the battle up to the reader.
In recent times, Battle of the Books began in the 1940's as a Chicago radio program sponsored by the Chicago Public Library. Today it is a reading incentive program found in elementary, middle and high schools across the country.

Comment on Books

Let others know what you thought of a particular book, was it awesome?  Did you hate it?  Go to a book's page and at the bottom you can leave a comment.

Rate Books

Cast your vote on how good you think a book is, 1 being horrible, 5 being awesome!
On a book page, you will find 5 stars under the cover image.  Click the number of stars you would rate the book.

2012 Grand Battle of the Books is Now Online

You can now view the Grand Battle of the Books online.
Grades 3-5 Grand Battle of the Books
Grades 6-8 Grand Battle of the Books
Grades 9-12 Grand Battle of the Books

2012 Online Battle of the Books Results

Please join in congratulating the winners of the 2012 Grand Battle of the Books.

 
HIGH SCHOOL
AW Dreyfoos School of the Arts: Muses
 
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Roosevelt Middle School: Platform 9 and 3/4
 
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Morikami Elementary School: The Infinite Book Club 1951
 
We salute those library media specialists, teachers and parents who encouraged students to read and study the Florida Sunshine State Young Reader and Florida Teens Read books.