Both of Our Battle of the Books teams made it to the quarter-finals!

Congratulations to our two Battle of the Books (BOB) teams that made it to the semi-finals at the ninth annual competition on October 21 at Ossining High School. Battle of the Books is an all-day book-based trivia tournament for Westchester Youth.  The competition format is similar to Jeopardy and questions are based on the 5 books for each age bracket. This year a total of 20 libraries and 229 4th-12th graders participated at the annual competition. Both Pelham teams held team practices starting in the summer. The younger team — the Pelham Bookworms — was coached by Librarian Erin Maloney and the older team — The Pelham Readers of the Lost Ark –was led by Librarian Kathy Palovick.

Pelham Bookworms pictured above from top left to bottom right: Mabel Gilmartin, Abby Harriss, Ava Bogdanow, Coach Erin Maloney, Hannah Gallo, Tatum Conway, Maggie Balafas, Rosie Riegel, James Bartlett, Patrick Vitale, Tessa Goodyear, Aasha Smith, Ripley Simon, Bobby Terranova, Mae Whalen, and Teddy Higgins

The Pelham Readers of the Lost Ark pictures above from left to right: Josephine Gilmartin, Madeline Simon, Lucy Gold, and coach Kathy Palovick.

Quotes from those involved in Pelham’s Battle of the Books teams:

“Tessa had a great time and has said she’d like to participate again next year.” – Chiara Goodyear (parent)

“You might not always win, but what matters is that you tried your best.” – Abby Harriss (participant)

“I’m planning to do it again next year. The book I was least interested in reading was the one I liked the most (Holes).” – Tessa Goodyear (participant)

” I wanted to do Battle of the Books because I love reading, and I thought that doing a challenge on your knowledge of the book would be fun. Not often do you get challenged on what you read, so that is what makes it exciting and a new experience.” – Lucy Gold (participant)

“It was great to see this group of kids form some new friendships over their love of books. Everyone had a lot of fun preparing for the competition!” – Erin Maloney (Coach)

“It’s a great opportunity for kids in Pelham to come together and share their love of reading ” – Kathy Palovick (coach)