The Twin Oak Elementary Battle of the Books team is pictured during their Zoom session to answers the 88 competition questions. Twin Oak took first place this year. Because of the school closure and social distancing, Battle of the Books was taken online this year and each team held a Zoom session to answer the questions.
MOUNT VERNON — The 2020 Knox County Battle of the Books took place this year — albeit in a different format then previous years due to the school buildings shuttered.
The competition took place over two weeks when each team spent one day the 88 questions, one from each book read throughout the year, over Zoom. The questions are split into three categories — easy, medium and hard — and each team has to answer the same questions. Each team was awarded points for getting title and author, along with awarded partial points for just getting the title.
The competition was then left with eight teams competing online via Zoom. Columbia, Dan Emmett, East, Pleasant Street, Twin Oak, Wiggin Street, St. Vincent de Paul and Centerburg elementary schools all had teams.
“It was interesting to do the competition on Zoom,” said Marilyn Chidester, competition organizer. “But we all hope it is normal next year. There were glitches each time, all different.”
But they, Chidester and the team coaches, learned how to operate the Zoom competition. She said that being at home and having to confer with their teammates on Zoom, instead of in-person, made the competition a little harder than last year. Plus, there was no excitement since teams weren’t able to “steal” answers away from other teams and weren’t in front of an audience cheering them on.
All team members and coaches were able to join the Zoom session but only six of the students were allowed to be unmuted to confer and answer the questions. Coaches were allowed to switch out the students in the different rounds.
“I think everyone had a good time but wishes we could have had teams competing face to face,” Chidester said.
Twin Oak Elementary took first place this year and Columbia Elementary came in second.
The 2020 Battle of the Books competitors include:
Columbia: Joslin Fraser, Bryson Shellenbarger, Jonathan Green, Jackson Ross, Ella Kennedy, Gabby Beck and Trenten Atherton;
Dan Emmett: Team Captain Karsyn Clutter, Madilyn Blubaugh, Ella Maddux, Addison Minder, Nate Evans, Hailey O’Dell and Emma Wilson;
East: Team Captain Aurora McKee, Kingston Clinedinst, Nathan Hofferberth, Amanda Misarti, Kate Oswalt, Jocelyn Scarbury, Hannah Vanderhoof and Mae Wiley;
Centerburg: Team Captain Luke Pack, Avery Murray, Tesla Blankenship and Brody Andrews;
Pleasant Street: Team Captain Carsten Hahn, Jaelyn Bookhamer, Quiton Elkins, Lucy Kingsbury, Anna Miller, Victor Miller, Lizzie Shull and Cater Sowul;
St. Vincent de Paul: Team Captain Kierra White, Zachary Clinedinst, Logan Daubenmier, Lucas Holland, Owen Petrie, Reighlee Richert and Julie Stabile;
Twin Oak: Team Captain Natasha Jose, Dede Burcham, Reece Moyer, Megan Packard, Morgan Statler, Cooper Swanson and Aaron Yeager;
Wiggin Street: Team Co-Captains Amelia O’Meara and Dylan Tiffany, Lila Ackley, Nic Pechon-Elkins, Archie Meyer, Molly Taylor and Ryder Witt.
Any upcoming fifth-grader who wishes to participate can pick up the 2021 Battle of the Books reading list from the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County and start checking out books to read over the summer.
