The PTA at our elementary school sponsors the Battle of the Books competition (Everyone uses the acronym BOB instead of the actual name) nearly every spring. Although Malia has been old enough to participate for several years, last month was her first opportunity to actually experience the “battle” part. In 2020, the COVID induced shutdown began less than a week before the competition was scheduled to occur. In 2021, the schools were not holding any assemblies or whole school activities due to COVID, so the PTA cancelled the entire thing. After losing those opportunities, Malia was extra excited to participate this year.
All the kids who are interested in participating in BOB are organized into teams of five for the competition. Each team selects a name, draws a team poster, divides up the books so at least one team member reads each of the twenty books, and meets together regularly to prep for the competition. Each member of Malia’s team was assigned to read four books, but I made a deal with Malia. I challenged her to read all twenty books and if she did, I promised to take her out to dinner and a movie. She found that highly motivating and did in fact read all twenty books. While she enjoyed most of the books, there were a few she did not. But I feel like it was a great experience because she was exposed to a variety of genres, some of which she would never have selected on her own.
A week or so before the competition, her team, which had selected the name BOBcats as their name, was informed that another team had chosen the same name. As a result, Malia and her teammates had to come up with a new name. I love the humor of this little group of kids because they named themselves “The BOB Ross Catz.” And yes, they do in fact know who Bob Ross is. (If you don’t, google him. It’s pretty entertaining.) As a part of their competition preparations, they had to create a poster for their team, one that they all worked on together. The competition was a month ago, but the team posters were sent home today. One of Malia’s teammates was supposed to have the honor of keeping the poster, but when he told them he didn’t want it, Malia was more than happy to volunteer to keep it. (Yes, she is a packrat. She tries to keep everything she ever touches, and it contributes to the massive mess that is her bedroom.) I had not seen the poster prior to today, and it made me laugh. Out loud. Those kids are funny.
Oh, and they did great in the competition. They made it to the semi-finals. Woot for their hard work and preparation!
