For students who enjoy reading, Battle of the Books club wants you.
Battle of the Books is part of The Florida Teens Read initiative which is, “a student-choice reading award program to determine which Young Author book will win the annual award as the favorite of teens in Florida,” states the Florida Teens Read website.
“It’s a place where people who love to read can discuss topics in the book and have fun talking about other’s interests,” senior Shaylee Jackson said.
FTR hopes to entice teens to read and to engage their interest on the subjects covered in the reading list provided.
“[The team] learned that just because you don’t like a certain book you’re reading it doesn’t mean you don’t like discussing it and having a team of people to talk to,” Jackson said.
A committee consisting of 12 school librarians selects the 15 YA books. These books include several subjects such as alternate-universe’s, dystopian societies, political conflicts and teen dramas.
“These books were chosen very carefully after a long selection process,” Media Specialist Bethany Chappetta said. “[The selection of books] are pretty varied on subject matter which is nice. So far, it seems like they’re really good.”
Afterwards, students can participate in the program by reading any of the books on the list below and memorizing details in the text to be quizzed on later. The reading process takes several hours to properly comprehend and analyze.
“The team meets once a week. The meetings consist of us preparing for the competition and reviewing the rules and getting us into a pattern of what to do in rounds by going through questions about the books,” Jackson said. “We divided the 15 books among us to read and make questions based on facts for us to go over later on.”
The next BotB meeting is Thursday, September 29th. For more information students can contact Ms Chappetta at the library.
Here is The complete list of FTR books:
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahit
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest and Kali Ciesemier
The Making of a Navy SEAL by Brandon Webb
Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Sweet by Emmy Laybourne
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
Untwine by Edwidge Danticat
What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler
The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Thorne