Local schools compete in book competition

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) -

Five Rockingham County schools are working together to get kids reading again. They are calling it the ‘Battle of the Books’ competition.

Students at each school are reading the same 5 books for different grade levels. There are 5 6th, 7th and 8th-grade books. On January 14, students from all 5 schools will get together to compete in a trivia-style competition with trivia questions about the books.

“Readers are leaders. We know that, and we know that books should be windows and books should be mirrors. So our goal with Battle of the Books is to give students the opportunity to discover things that they may not pick up on their own and to really give an outlet for those avid readers to compete for their school,” said Jessica Kitter, the library media specialist at Elkton Middle School.

Kitta says over 70 students are competing in the tournament. She says some students even go above and beyond reading books outside of their grade level.