Well Done, Pawling Pirates!
The Library’s Battle of the Books team competed in the Regional Battles on Saturday, September 10th. They came in at third place and although they won’t go on to the Finals, they had a lot of fun, made new friends, and read great books! We’ll be back for 2023!
What is Battle of the Books?
Battle of the Books is a national Summer Reading Program for middle- and high-school students. Participants in the Mid-Hudson Library System program are asked to read the selected titles each summer, and then participate in trivia battles based on the books. Beginning in 2021, each library team will participate in a regional battle, with the winners progressing to face one another in the finals.
The goal of the program is to promote a love of reading in children and teens, to expose them to titles and authors that they might not encounter in school, and to inspire teamwork and good sportsmanship in an atmosphere of friendly competition.
The Pawling Library 2022 Team
The Pawling Library is excited to have a middle school battle of the books once again. The team is open to students entering 5th grade through 8th grade in September. Members receive paperback copies of the six titles and are expected to read them through the spring and summer months.
The summer meeting day will be Mondays at 5:30 pm. Please note: no meeting on August 1st.
Team Info
The team, The Pawling Pirates, includes members from three area middle schools. The members are: Mariel Germosen and Bella Germosen of St. Denis-St. Columba School; Cillian Gribbon and Aarav Jassal of Pawling Middle School; and Maia Dumas and Rylee McDonough of Mizzentop Day School.
T-Shirt Order Form: https://forms.gle/t9YnMmSn34fmPQrL7
Upcoming Practice Battles
- Tuesday, 7/19 @ 4:30 pm at the Patterson Library
Address: 1167 Route 311, Patterson NY
- Tuesday, 8/9 @ 5:30 pm with Kent Library at Pawling Library Annex
- Tuesday, 8/30 @ 4:30 pm at the Beekman Library
Address: 11 Town Center Blvd., Hopewell Junction, NY
- Wednesday 8/31 @ 5:30 pm at the Putnam Valley Library
Address: 30 Oscawana Lake Road, Putnam Valley, NY
Program Details:
- Regional Battle Date: Saturday, September 10th @ 2:30 pm to be held at the LaGrange Library
- Final Battle Date: Saturday, September 17th @ 10 AM to be held at the Mid-Hudson Library System auditorium.
- The participants will play in teams against the other libraries.
- The participants will compete according to a round robin competition format.
- Each team will play 5 rounds with a bye for one round.
- There will be 20 questions per round.
- Questions will be in a format so that the title and author is the answer.
- Five participants from each team will be allowed to battle each round.
- A buzzer system will be used to determine which team will answer the question.
- Teams will gather points for each correct answer and carry those points with them to the next round.
- At the end of normal game play, the team with the most wins will go on to play in the Final Battle.
Join the Team!
To join, please contact coach Maureen McGrath: teen@pawlinglibrary.org
Books
Cub by Cynthia L. Copeland
Evie, Leah, and Tammy–the Predators–rule the seventh-grade hallway at Litchfield Junior High. Studious (and slightly dorky) Cindy and her friends are the Prey. Cindy’s defense is to “play dead”, pretending to be boring so the mean kids lose interest and leave her alone. Then everything changes when Cindy gets an internship as a cub reporter for the local newspaper. Suddenly, she’s chasing down breaking news with a bold young female journalist.
Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake
When a tornado rips through town, twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen’s house is destroyed and her family of six is displaced. Ivy feels invisible and ignored in the aftermath of the storm–and what’s worse, her notebook filled with secret drawings of girls holding hands has gone missing. Mysteriously, Ivy’s drawing begin to reappear in her locker with notes from someone telling her to open up about her identity. Ivy thinks–and hope–that this someone might be her classmate, a girl on whom Ivy has begun to develop a crush. Will Ivy find the strength and courage to follow her true feelings?
Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
Rose Howard has Asperger’s syndrome, and an obsession with homonyms (even her name is a homonym). She gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose’s rules of homonyms, is very special. Rain was a lost dog Rose’s father brought home. Rose and Rain are practically inseparable. And they are often home alone, as Rose’s father spends most evenings at a bar, and doesn’t have much patience for his special-needs daughter. Just as a storm hits town, Rain goes missing. Rose’s father shouldn’t have let Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it means leaving her routines and safe places to search. Rose will find Rain, but so will Rain’s original owners.
The Season of Styx Malone by Kekia Magoon
Caleb Franklyn and his big brother, Bobby Gene, have the whole summer to explore the woods in Sutton, Indiana. Caleb longs to venture beyond their small town, but his dad likes the family to stay close to home. The Caleb and Bobby Gene meet new neighbor Styx Malone. Styx is sixteen, and he oozes cool. He promises the boys that together, they can pull off the Great Escalator Trade–a way to turn one small thing into more, and more, until they achieve their wildest dream. But as the trades get bigger, the brothers find themselves in over their heads. Styx has secrets–and Caleb fears their whole plan might fall apart.
The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
Suzy Swanson has always known things that other kids don’t. She can explain the sleep patterns of ants. She knows there are 150 million jellyfish stings on the planet every year. She knows that the average middle school kid contains about 20 billion of Shakespeare’s atoms. But she can’t understand how Franny Jackson’s lifetime could be cut so short…before Suzy could make up for the worst thing she’d ever done to her best friend. When Suzy formulates a bold plan to travel across the globe–alone–to learn the truth about how her friend died, she discovers that the answers she most needs could be right in her own backyard.
The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann
Every year in Quill, thirteen-year-olds are sorted into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go to university, and the artistic Unwanteds are sent to their graves. On the day of the Purge, identical twins Alex and Aaron Stowe await their fate. While Aaron is hopeful of becoming a Wanted, Alex knows his chances are slim. He’s been caught drawing with a stick in the dirt–and in the stark gray land of Quill, being creative is a death sentence. But when Alex and the other Unwanteds face the Eliminators, they discover an eccentric magician named Mr. Today and his hidden world that exists to save the condemned children. Artime is a colorful place of talking statues, uncommon creatures, and artistic magic, where creativity is considered a gift…and a weapon.
Tuesday afternoons
