By CONNIE NOLEN / Community Columnist

“I don’t know if we’re prepared. We’ve worked hard, but this year has gone so quickly,” PHS Battle of the Books Coach Rebecca Burnett said. Burnett wanted to bring home the Shelby County Battle of the Books first place trophy—badly.

Shelby County started the BOB competition six years ago to encourage reading. High interest books are chosen for the competition for intermediate, middle and high school groups. Book lists are made available near the beginning of the school year.

At PHS, competition begins at the school level. Students and teachers alike are reading and talking about the BOB titles as soon as they’re announced. In fact, many students read the books because they’ve heard so much about them—even if they’re unable to audition for the BOB team.

Many students do tryout for the BOB team. In fact, Burnett has a tryout test to determine our school’s team members—and that competition is intense. This year’s team had two alternates who were very much a part of the team by attending practices and writing test questions to push their teammates toward a victory.

The PHS BOB 2013 team lost strong 2012 graduates and had no returning seniors. In spite of their challenges, our PHS BOB team did bring home the Shelby County BOB Championship trophy again this year.

“This year’s BOB team was young, having no senior leadership, but they worked diligently reading, writing questions and practicing those questions,” Burnett said. “I am so proud of them!”

Sophomore Anna Crawford was the competition’s MVP or top-scoring student overall.

“For the first time, the second place individual score came from the same school,” Burnett said. “Mari Morgan was our second place winner.”

“I was in the very first BOB competition as a fifth grader at Valley Intermediate School,” said Crawford.

PHS is so proud of our BOB Championship team members and their coach Rebecca Burnett. As a school, we are even more victorious because many students and teachers found new authors to follow—and more great books to enjoy.

 

Connie Nolen can be reached by email at CNolen@Shelbyed.k12.al.us.