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MS Read: Battle of the Books 2023 - 2024

Books and resources for middle school

23-24 BOB School Competition Books

About BOB

Outline

Battle of the Books (BOB) is a literary competition where teams of students compete by answering questions about books that are selected by the teachers & librarians of the participating schools. The competition is designed to encourage reading and literary knowledge among young people.

Books for the competition normally include:

  • 2 graphic novels

  • 2 classics

  • 2 Chinese themed novels

  • 14 mixed genres and cultures

There are 3 friendly battles each year usually in October/November, January, and March.

The final is held in May/June at the school of the previous year’s champions.

The friendly battles are held at the 3 of the participating schools.

Questions format:  “In which book did………” And the answers are always the author and title of the book. 

23-24 Participation schools: WAB, Dulwich Beijing, YCIS, LFIP, BSB, German School, Harrow

The Battle Rules

  • The first battle is made up of questions from the first 6 books, then 12, 18, and all 20 in the final.

  • Each team is made up of 6 students but they can have substitutions for the second round.

  • Each member of the team will be asked a question, they have 30 seconds to confer and answer the question.

  • The timekeeper will announce when there are 10 seconds remaining.

  • The person answering the question must give the correct title and author of the book.  Pronunciation is not essential but the author and title must be correct. Once they start to answer they cannot be helped by their teammates.

  • If they are correct they earn 3 points – 2 for the title and 1 for the author.

  • If they are incorrect the other teams have 30 seconds to write down the author’s name and titles on the slips of paper.

  • For the bonus rounds, nothing should be written down until the question has been asked, you can however write the name of your school and team number in advance.

  • 2 points are awarded for correct bonus slips.

  • Incorrect spelling will be accepted as well abbreviated titles where the titles are very long, i.e. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time we would accept “Curious Incident of the Dog” or “The Book of Dust” for The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage

  • Points will be added up after the 2nd round and the winners announced.

How to participate?

Are you willing to read as many of the books on the list as possible?

Sign up in the library or send a Teams message to MS Teacher Librarian: Ms. Luna.

We'll form 2 teams with each team of 6 readers.

Let's Meet on ASA ( Friday lunchtime) to read the books, talk about the books, and play fun games and activities related to the books.

Questions are in a fixed pattern:  “In which book did………” The answers are always the author and title of the book.

The first friendly battle day is on 1 November, 2023.

The big battle day will be in May/June 2024.

BOB Poster

Teacher Librarian

Profile Photo
Luna Wang
she/her

23-24 BOB School Competition Booklist