
What is Battle of the Books (BoB)?
It’s a countywide competition of young adults from more than a dozen participating Westchester public libraries. We have two Croton teams — grades 4-7 and 6-12 — that practice weekly to answer trivia questions based on five books selected by librarians from all over the county.
Teams have weekly practices before the final battle, which will take place on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Ossining High School.
Interested in participating?
Any student in Croton or Cortlandt who’s entering grades 4-12 (or their homeschool equivalents) in Fall 2023 is eligible to join our teams! Please note: Each team is capped at 12 participants, and if there is a lot of interest, we may need to draw for spots.
Interested parties should come to our info session on May 16 and fill out an interest form.
Weekly meetings start in mid-July and run from 7-8pm on Tuesdays (Older Division) and Thursdays (Younger Division).
Contact Gwen (gglazer@wlsmail.org) for more info.
About Battle of the Books
- Grades 4-7, Younger Division: Thursdays, 7-8pm, beginning July 13
- Grades 6-12, Older Division: Tuesdays, 7-8pm, beginning July 11
Anyone in Croton or Cortlandt who’s entering grades 4-12 (or their homeschool equivalents) in Fall 2023. Students going into grades 6-7 can be in either the younger or older divisions, and they can choose which team they’d like to join based on the book lists.
Teams will form this spring and practice once a week until the final battle on Saturday, Oct. 21.
Each year, the Westchester Library System’s BoB committee nominates and votes on our books. They’re diverse, interesting, and fun!
Books for grades 4-7:
- Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
- City Spies by James Ponti
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Twins by Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright
- Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee
Books for grades 6-12:
- The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- Warcross by Marie Lu
- A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
- Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize by Margo Rabb
- I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Each division must have at least three members each to participate.
Please note: Each team is capped at 12 participants, and if there is a lot of interest, we may need to draw for spots.
Team coaches: Nikki Rank (Younger Division) & Gillian Rothchild (Older Division)
Team adviser: Gwen Glazer
Students get to know five books inside and out, and meet other book enthusiasts! Our program is structured like a book club for the first several meetings, and then we start practicing to compete against teams from other libraries as the season goes on.