Book Battle: getting kids interested in reading

Last Friday, Silverdale Normal School and Cambridge Middle School took home the trophies for this year’s Book Battle.

Cambridge Middle School won the year 7 and 8 competition. Photo: Hamilton Book Month Instagram

One hundred children from sixteen different schools gathered at the Hamilton Central Library last Friday to compete in a quiz testing their literary chops.

The prize was, of course, more books for the school’s library, as well as a trophy celebrating their victory.

There were two separate battles, with teams from years 5 and 6 competing in the morning, and years 7 and 8 in the afternoon. Silverdale Normal School took out the junior competition, while Cambridge Middle School were winners in the intermediate competition.

The quiz mostly focused on a few books the kids are assigned to read ahead of time, along with themed rounds with more general questions.

The questions are all multiple choice, a decision Book Battle founders and organisers Vicki Munroe and Nova Gibson made with the intent of making the quiz achievable for the average child.

Nova Gibson (left) and Vicki Munroe (right). Photo by Kai Creighton

Munroe and Gibson, who were both school librarians, created Book Battle twelve years ago because they wanted something that would be doable for the kids at their schools interested in reading.

The quiz focused on several children’s books written by New Zealand authors, incentivising kids to read something new. The battle also serves as a more accessible event compared to the more competitive national Kids’ Lit Quiz.

Munroe and Gibson have now moved on from their respective roles at Marina View School and Massey Primary and spend a significant amount of their time in their volunteer role running Book Battle.

The goal has always been to simply get kids excited about reading.

“I can see the decline in reading,” Gibson said.

Munroe added “It’s across the board in some schools and not others.”

The event started as a Kahoot quiz between a few schools in Auckland, and the librarians never expected it to grow so big.

Now, the event takes place at nine different locations across Aotearoa, with most bringing out 200 kids.

Silverdale Normal School won the year 5 and 6 competition. Photo from the Hamilton Book Month Instagram