Middle School Students (Grades 6-8) can join through their school to compete in our Battle of the Books program. Participants will read and try to become familiar with the details of 20 books and in October and November schools will battle it out at the library. Interested? Speak to your school librarian about joining.
Schedules are sent to each participating school's librarian/coach at the beginning of each school year. Battles are held in Wheaton Public Library’s Lower Level Large Meeting Room in October and November. Battles begin promptly at 3:45pm and typically end by 4:20pm.
Middle schools (serving grades 6-8) located within the City of Wheaton or District 200 School District boundaries are eligible to participate in YABOB. Schools outside of these boundaries that participated in YABOB in 2016 are allowed to continue to participate. However, if a school located outside the designated boundaries decides not to participate, the school will not be considered eligible for future YABOB seasons.
There will be two battle sections. Section 1 will be virtual and Section 2 will be in-person.
Section 1
4 weekly trivia quizzes will be released via Kahoot.
Quizzes will be open from Monday at 9am – Sunday at 11pm
- Coaches/Teachers will coordinate with their team to complete the quizzes together
- Each team will have to enter under their school name
- Each team can only complete the quiz once
- All members of a team can participate in each round
Section 2
Each team will compete in 2 in-person battles
- Battles will consist of 2 rounds of play
- Teams may have up to 4 players in each round
- Teams can change players between rounds.
- Team members not playing in a round should sit at the back of the room
- Questions may not be copied during meets
- If a team does not appear for a scheduled meet, it forfeits the meet and receives zero points
Questions for both sections can be taken from the text or images of a book. Text can include, prologues, epilogues, and author’s notes.
Section 1
Each battle quiz will have 24 questions.
All questions will be multiple choice and quizzes will include different sections of questions.
- Choose the book title – based on events (7)
- Choose the book title – based on characters (7)
- Choose what happened in a book (7)
- Choose the correct author (3)
Time: Teams will have 60 second to answer each question.
Section 2
Round 1
Includes individual team questions and bonus questions posed to all teams.
Individual questions
- 8 Questions to each team
- The answer to each question is the title of a book.
- Book titles and author names must be exact (if there is a colon, only everything before the colon). For authors we do not need middle initials, but if an author’s name is only initials (e.g. J.R.R Tolkien) all must be included.
- Teams can earn an extra point by providing the correct author of the book
- If a team member asks to have a question repeated, this is included in the allotted response time.
Example: In which book do you read about a subdivision called “the farm?” Answer: The View From Saturday by E.L. Koningsburg
Bonus questions
- 8 Bonus questions
- One Bonus question is posed to all of the teams at the end of each set of individual questions.
- Answers are written down their answer on a dry erase board.
- An automatic repeat of the question is given within the 30-second allotment.
- Bonus questions are based on character recognition. The answer to each question is the title of a book.
- Titles do not need to be exact, but it must be obvious what the book is.
Example: Which book features a boy named Brian Robeson? Answer: Hatchet
Time: Teams will have 30 seconds to answer each question.
Round 2
- 8 multiple choice questions to each team
- The answers to the questions are taken from the context of the books.
- Teams can say either the letter or the answer to receive points. If a team says both, but they do not match (wrong letter for the answer given) we will take the answer over the letter.
Example: In Stormbreaker, what is the name of the main character? A. Adam, B. Alex, C. Anthony.
Time: Teams will have 15 seconds to answer each question.
Section 1
The Kahoot scoring will not be the official scoring. After quizzes are complete WPL will be reviewing the answers and awarding points. These scores will be listed on the score sheet on our website.
- Choose the book title – events: 5 points
- Choose the book title – characters: 3 points
- Choose what happened in a book: 5 points
- Choose the correct Author: 3 points
Section 2
- Round 1- Individual: 5 points. 1 additional point for the for including the first and last name of the book’s author.
- Round 1 – Bonus: 3 points
- Round 2: 5 points
If a team feels they answered a question correctly and were not awarded points, players may challenge the answer to a question immediately after completing a quiz or meet.
If in person, let the moderator know at the end of the meet which question your team will be challenging. If virtual, email Lisa at lbarefield@wheatonlibrary.org with the question you are challenging.
Players then have 24 hours to follow up with a text reference for the challenge. Students who support the challenge with a specific text reference will be awarded points. Once awarded, points cannot be deducted. The Battle moderators may take up to 24 hours to review the challenge and all decisions are final.