The Tarkio team, Reading Ninjas, placed 1st in the 2019 Battle of the Books competition Friday, March 29, 2019, at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included, from left to right: front row – Sydnee Bruns, Lizzie Schlueter, and Haylee Clark; and back row – Abbie Harms. Fourteen teams competed in the event, held for 4th through 6th graders, which tests students’ knowledge on the Missouri Mark Twain award winning books.

The Tarkio team, Reading Rockets, placed 2nd in the 2019 Battle of the Books competition Friday, March 29, 2019, at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included, from left to right, Jacob Shubkagel, Finn Hurst, Gabe Harms, and River Dow. The Atchison County Development Corporation grant buys extra copies of the award books for each school, pizza and drinks before the event begins, take-home bags for participants, prize drawings, and special bags for the top four teams.

The Rock Port team, Excellent Elephants, placed 3rd in the 2019 Battle of the Books competition at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included, from left to right, Jadyn Lawrence, Stevie Pritt, Emma Teten, and Pooja Patel. This event would not be possible without the encouragement of local elementary school teachers and librarians.

Over 50 Atchison County youth in 4th through 6th grades competed in the Battle of the Books Friday, March 29, 2019, at the Tarkio Resource Center. Sponsored by the Atchison County Development Corporation (ACDC), the Mule Barn Theatre Guild, and the Flower Mill, the event tested the students’ knowledge  on 11 Mark Twain award nominees and one best seller selected by the librarians. The students are notified of the book selections in August so they have plenty of time to prepare.

The Reading Ninjas of Tarkio were this year’s Battle of the Books champions. Team members included Sydnee Bruns, Lizzie Schlue-ter, Haylee Clark, and Abbie Harms. The 2nd place team was the Reading Rockets of Tarkio, including members Jacob Shubkagel, Finn Hurst, Gabe Harms, and River Dow. The 3rd place team was Excellent Elephants of Rock Port. Members included Emma Teten, Pooja Patel, Stevie Pritt, and Jadyn Lawrence.

Several teams tied for fourth place so it was decided to move only the top three into the final round in order to have enough questions to decide the winner. The students read a total of 119,232 pages. The top reader was Ryan Lucas with 8,683 pages read, second place was Abbie Harms with 5,936 pages read, and third place was Lizzie Schlueter with 5,730 pages read.

This event would not be possible without the encouragement of local elementary school teachers and librarians, nor without the help from many volunteers who read the books, wrote the questions, and organized the event.