The Tarkio Order of the Phoenix won the Battle of the Books Friday, April 30, 2021, at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Velicity Hegstrom, Bailey Wennihan, and Finn Hurst.

The Tarkio Reading Rangers tied for second place in the Battle of the Books Friday, April 30, 2021, at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Ben Rolf, Braylyn Wood, Keely Bredensteiner, and Viviane Hale.

The Fairfax Book Busters tied for second place in the Battle of the Books Friday, April 30, 2021, at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Knox Oswald, Chloe Vernon, Piper Morris, and Mason Kingery.

The Unbreakable Readers from Tarkio competed in the Battle of the Books at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Leila Brooks, Caroline Powell, Josh Schlueter, and Gracie Walker.

The Fairfax Air Ballers competed in the Battle of the Books at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Mack Smith, Jaxson Smith, Carter Oswald, and Henry Smith.

The Fairfax Random Readers competed in the Battle of the Books at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Brenna Kingery, Aliyah Pearce, Caroline Larson, and Deyton Burke.

Rock Port’s Reading Heat competed in the Battle of the Books at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Leah Meyerkorth, Westyn Amthor, Jack Meyerkorth, and Landry Kelly.

Rock Port’s Reading Rangers competed in the Battle of the Books at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Gabe Gebhards, Mya Welch, Levi Lucas, and Desmond Chaney.

Rock Port’s Wishful Readers competed in the Battle of the Books at the Tarkio Resource Center. Team members included Olivia Roup, Jaylynn Jones, Isabella Kroeger, and Grant Spiegel.

Levi Lucas of Rock Port was the top reader for the Battle of the Books competition. He read 3,772 pages to prepare for the event and earned a number of prizes for his efforts.

The 15th annual Atchison County Battle of the Books took place Friday, April 30, 2021, at the Tarkio Resource Center. Thirty-five participants on nine different teams of fourth through sixth graders competed in the event, which is sponsored by Atchison County Development Corporation (ACDC), Mule Barn Theatre Guild, and the Tarkio, Fairfax, and Rock Port school libraries. Many volunteers see to the success of this event.

This year, a total of 59,926 pages were read. Tarkio’s Order of the Phoenix team won the competition. The Tarkio Reading Rangers and Fairfax Book Busters tied for second place. In the first round, the Tarkio Reading Rangers answered the questions with 100% accuracy. The Fairfax Book Busters and Tarkio’s Order of the Phoenix answered with 97% accuracy. Rock Port’s Reading Rangers answered with 85% accuracy. A total of 70% of the questions were answered correctly, which is quite a feat considering the questions are created from a reading selection of 12 books that had 226-357 pages in each. The top three teams advanced to the final round. Order of the Phoenix answered the questions with 100% accuracy and tied for second with 90% accuracy were Fairfax’s Book Busters and Tarkio’s Reading Rangers (these two teams only missed one question each). The top five readers were: 1st – Levi Lucas of Rock Port with 3,772 pages; 2nd (tie) – Braylyn Wood and Ben Rolf of Tarkio with 3,413 pages; 3rd – Mya Welch of Rock Port with 3,056 pages; and 4th – Mason Kingery of Fairfax with 2,595 pages.

Each participant received a paperback book, Beanie Baby, handmade bookmark, and gift cards from either Rays’ Dairy Diner, The Buttercup, or JumpStart Nutrition in a personalized bag. All participants in the final round received two free bowling games from River Rock Lanes of Rock Port and also got to pick a game, gift certificate, or kite from the prize table. There were also three drawings for each town after the first round. Extra copies of the books for each school library, plus gift certificates and prizes were purchased with a grant that ACDC supplies each year.