STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUN VALLEY COMMUNITY SCHOOL

It sounded like a sci-fi horror movie with the Seagulls Vengeful Awakening facing off against the Brilliant Blondes.

When it was over, the Seagulls Vengeful Awakening beat out their Wood River Middle School counterparts in the Region 4 Battle of the Books.

Wood River Middle School teacher Mark Gasenica coached the Seagulls Vengeful Awakening—Alicia Archibald, Piper Renner, Miyu Doan and Farryn Loosli—to victory.

The Seagulls composed of Farryn Loosli, Alicia Archibald, Miyu Doan and Piper Renner were coached by Mark Gasenica. They topped the Blondes comprised of Freya and Rosemary Moffat, Freya Wohlwend and Jasper Pollock, who was subbing for Sally Nielsen. They were coached by Kari Minas.

"These two teams from Wood River Middle School had gone head-to-head twice in regular-season competitions with varying results, so it was an exciting final round,” said Naomi Goldberg, eighth-grade teacher at Sun Valley Community School.

Fourteen teams attended the competition held last week at Sun Valley Community School. There were five from the Wood River Middle School, two from Sun Valley Community School, two from Hemingway STEAM School, two from Burley Junior High, two from the Burley Public Library and one from Oakley Junior High.

The school was a busy beehive as 25 volunteers helped moderate time and score battles as students answered questions about 16 books they’d read over the year in a game quiz format.

The Brilliant Blondes were comprised of Freya Wohlwend, Freya and Rosemary Moffat and Jasper Pollock with coach Kari Minas.

After three rounds of pool play, the top eight teams competed in a single-elimination tournament; each school/library qualified at least one team for the elite eight. One team from Burley Junior High, one from Burley Public Library and two teams from WRMS faced off in the final four,

The Seagulls, Brilliant Blondes and third-place Burley Public Library’s Sisters Grimm team members received custom 3D meals printed by the Wood River Middle School tech teacher Angela Barbre. And each player on the top team received $20 gift cards provided by Chapter One Bookstore.

“IBOB is a wonderful way for students to celebrate their love of reading and have fun both in collaboration with their own teams and in friendly competition with other schools,” said Goldberg. “In such an athletically-focused valley, it's refreshing to see and support friendly academic competition. I'm always impressed with the students' knowledge of the books!”

This was just the third year that the Sun Valley Community School has participated in the Battle of the Books, so Goldberg and her cohorts were excited to be able to host the Region 4 tournament. 

Students competed in the Idaho Battle of the Books at Sun Valley Community School.

“The excitement, energy, and anticipation prior to the battles is wonderful. I'm SO thankful for the way our community showed up with volunteers on tournament day--we had more than 25 volunteers without whom the tournament could not have happened,” she said. “I particularly want to shout out to Samantha Mora and her team from WRMS, who hosted the tournament two years ago and who provided me with planning tips, fabulous volunteers, and day-of support, and Kelly Cavanaugh and Connor Quinn from Chapter One Bookstore who came to the tournament to sell books for next year.”

Next year Sun Valley Community School and Wood River Middle School hope to field student AND teacher teams. And don’t count Hemingway STEAM School out.

The book list for next year is:

Running Out of Time (Margaret Peterson Haddix)

Sisters Grimm—Elizabeth Lassen, Amelia Myers, Elliana Myers and Katie Lassen—show off their medals.

The Trouble with Heroes (Kate Messner)

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (Axie Oh)

The Goose Girl (Shannon Hale)

Invisible (Christina Diaz Gonzales & Gabriela Epstein)

The Bletchley Riddle (Ruta Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin)

The War That Saved My Life (Kimberly Brubaker Bradley)

Olivetti (Allie Minton)

Scritch Scratch (Lindsay Currie)

Westfallen (Ann Brashares & Ben Brashares)

Blood in the Water (Tiffany D. Jackson)

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman (Gennifer Choldenko)

Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Story of Courage in a Savage Storm (Michael J.Tougias)

Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up (Jenn Bishop)

Good Different (Meg Eden Kuyatt)

The Last Dragon on Mars (Scott Reintgen)