Tips for Teen Managers 2012

Here are some tips for Team Managers. Of course you want your team to do well, but more important than that is that they all have fun. Here are some guidelines and tips to help you help them do well and have fun.

• Make sure that each team member understands which books on the reading list he/she is expected to read.


• Meet with the team regularly to offer encouragement, check on reading progress, foster team cohesiveness and to help team members learn author’s names and facts from books.


• Act as communication link between the library and team members and parents with all information regarding the Battle of the Books. Please keep us informed of any problems or changes. You may email Kelly at Sewickley at rottmunk@einetwork.net or Heather at Moon at panellah@einetwork.net


• Make sure your team demonstrates sportsmanlike behavior before and during the battle.
  
  
• Make sure you as a team manager demonstrate sportsmanlike behavior before and during the battle.
  
  
• Make sure your team members and their families understand the rules of the Battle and expectations the evening of the Battle.


• Possibly provide transportation for your team members.


• Make sure they arrive on time at Sewickley Academy's Hansen Library (6th, 7th & 8th grade battles: 6:45, High School Battle: 6:30.)


• During the Battle each Team Manager will act as scorekeeper for another team. You will be asked to:


• Ensure that the team you are monitoring stops writing at the end of the 20-second time limit(whether answer is complete or not).


• Record the number of points earned for each question.


• Remain focused on the team you are monitoring (Please do not talk to the team you are scoring while they are coming up with their answers).


• Build Team Spirit


• Help your team come up with a descriptive Team Name.


• Decorate team t-shirts.


• Have your team wear the same color or item of clothing to the Battle.


• Practice, Practice, Practice


• Decide who will read each book. You will probably want more than one person to read each title.


• Decide how often you will meet to discuss the books.


• Hold “mock” battles or “Jeopardy”-style games based on the books.


• Have kids make up some of their own practice questions to quiz each other during the meetings.


• Coaches may want to read all the books.


• Seek to understand the characters and the setting of the books. Then, if the children have to guess on an answer they may be correct.


• Encourage and Reward


• Give words of praise and encouragement.


• Serve snacks at the meetings.


• Play a game before your meetings.


• Have a pizza party or ice cream outing at the completion of the Battle.


• Keep it fun and make happy memories!

What About BOB? Everything You Need to Know!

The Battle of the Books is a competition where teams made up of (four or) five teens read the chosen books and then participate in a trivia contest about those books. It’s a fun way to get some recreational reading done and actually get rewarded for it with some great prizes.

As a team, you need to assign the books to be read by the various team members. You can have each team member read two books, have all team members read all of the books, or some combination between. It’s up to you.

You will need to have a responsible person who’s 18 years of age or older to be your Team Manager. The Team Manager is there to help you get organized and provide transportation on the night of the event. Many teams ask a teacher, a parent, or their school librarian to be their team manager.

Here are some of the Rules about checking out Battle Books

1. Sewickley & Moon's battle books may be borrowed for 1 week and renewed once.
2. Only 2 battle books are allowed on a team member’s card at any given time.
3. The books can only be borrowed on a library card belonging to a team member. Team managers should not check out books for their team members. Copies may be available through your school libraries, Sewickley Public Library, Moon Public Library, or other Allegheny County Libraries.
4. Overdue Fines are $.25 per day for Battle Books.
5. If the library doesn’t have the book because they’ve all been checked out, ask a librarian to order one for you from another library. (This service is free all the time.)

So what actually happens on the night of the battle you ask? Well here it is in a nutshell: You will need to arrive at Sewickley Academy's Hansen Library 15 minutes early so that you can sign in and set up your team's table. Each team will have a pad of paper and a pencil. Your Team Manager will actually be a Team Scorekeeper for another team to be named that night.

The Battle Moderator will begin by asking the first question twice. At the end of the second time, the Timekeeper will allow 20 seconds for teams to deliberate and write down their answers. After 20 seconds, one team will have the chance to answer out loud (the answering team will vary every question.) The Battle Moderator will announce the correct answer and the Team Scorekeepers will mark how many points were won. If your team answers correctly you get 4 points plus a bonus point if you can give the last name of the author. This means that each question is potentially worth 5 points. Answers must be specific. The moderator and judges will decide if an answer given is correct, and that decision is final. If time permits, there will be three rounds with one question from each book per round.

At the end of each round, scorecards will be collected and verified. At the end of the third round, the Judges will tally all of the scores. If there is a tie, a special lightning round will take place between the tied teams. Once a clear winner has been made, the Battle Moderator will announce the winners. The top three teams will win prizes.

So, are you interested? To get started:

• Grab a booklist and a registration form. Both will be available online and in the Teen Area on Monday, November 28.
  
• You’ll need to find four friends in your grade group (6th grade, 7th & 8th grade, or High School)
  
• Find a responsible adult to be a Team Manager
  
• Create a name for your team
• And start reading!!!
  
• All final registration forms are due at Sewickley or Moon Library on Monday, January 23, by 8PM.

2011 Battle of the Books Winners!

Our 6th grade Battle was the largest Battle we have ever hosted! 28 teams showed up to participate. I couldn’t even count the number of parents and grandparents that came to support these teams.

We know everyone worked hard. And we are thankful to the teams for signing up, showing up, and being excited. Everyone was so awesome! However, there can only be three 6th Grade prize-winning teams and they were:

1st Place: The Newbery Readers
2nd Place: The Nerds
3rd Place: The Bookinators

7th/8th Grade Prize-Winning Teams

1st Place: Bob the Beaver

2nd Place: Reading Dragons V
3rd Place: The Reading Dragon Slayers II

High School Prize-Winning Teams

1st Place: Nerds with Words

2nd Place: Knights Who Say Ni
3rd Place: Feather Followers

Thank you to everyone who came out for the Battles and everyone who supported the team members during these last three months!

6th Grade Battle: LOCATION CHANGE

6th Grade Battle: Monday, February 28, 2011 at 7pm

Because of this year's record-setting number of teams, the 6th grade Battle of the Books will take place at Edgeworth Elementary School. Edgeworth is located at 200 Meadow Lane, Sewickley, PA 15143.

Teams and team managers are asked to arrive 10 minutes early. Please enter through Edgeworth's Main Entrance and proceed straight ahead into their gym/all-purpose room. Teams will sit in circles of chairs on the floor and the bleachers will be open for spectator seating.

Contact Kelly at Sewickley (412-741-6920 or rottmundk@einetwork.net) or Heather at Moon (412-269-0334 or panellah@einetwork.net) with any questions.

High Schoolers: Find Your Books (2011)

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwaba - A true story of tenacity and imagination describes how an African teenager built a windmill from scraps to create electricity for his home and his village, improving life for himself and his neighbors.





The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams - In a polygamous cult in the desert, Kyra, not yet fourteen, sees being chosen to be the seventh wife of her uncle as just punishment for having read books and kissed a boy, in violation of Prophet Childs' teachings, and is torn between facing her fate and running away from all that she knows and loves.




Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith - During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.






Impossible by Nancy Werlin - When seventeen-year-old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both.






Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp - In his senior year, high school star linebacker Hampton Greene finally begins to think for himself and discovers that he might be interested in more than just football.






Paper Towns by John Green - One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.





Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick - While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.






Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater - In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.



-All book summaries taken from NoveList database.

7th & 8th Graders: Find Your Books Now (2011)

Ask Me No Questions by Marina Tamar Budhos - Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family.



Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman - In India, in 1941, when her father becomes brain-damaged in a non-violent protest march, fifteen-year-old Vidya and her family are forced to move in with her father's extended family and become accustomed to a totally different way of life.




The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart - Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in order to enliven their mediocre pranks.




The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong - Still mourning the death of their mother, three brothers go with their father on an extended sailing trip off the Florida Keys and have a harrowing adventure at sea.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.




The Maze Runner by James Dashner - Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.



Million-Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica - Eighth-grade star quarterback Nate Brodie's family is feeling the stress of the troubled economy, and Nate is frantic because his best friend Abby is going blind, so when he gets a chance to win a million dollars if he can complete a pass during the halftime of a New England Patriot's game, he is nearly overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed.



The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon - In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.




Slob by Ellen Potter - Picked on, overweight genius Owen tries to invent a television that can see the past to find out what happened the day his parents were killed.





-All book summaries taken from NoveList database.