The county school board recognized East Robeson Elementary School as the Battle of the Books winners for second and third grades.

slideshow

LUMBERTON — Students from East Robeson Elementary School recently won first place in the Battle of the Books competition.

“The competition was hard, challenging and not easy, but it was fun,” said Daniel McVicker, a member of the winning team.

Battle of the Books began the third week of February. Each school selected up to 12 students to participate. Each group has to read about 25 award-winning books, such as “Chicken Boy, Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two,” and “Dead End in Norvelt.” The book list is distributed in the spring to all the schools. Each team member memorized 15 titles and authors by September and read all 15 chapter books by December. The second- and third-grade books were selected by the school librarians in Robeson County.

The students receive two points for a correct title and one point for the author. The competition requires two days per grade level with each team competing against every school. The school with the highest score wins.

The Public Schools of Robeson County started with the competition in 1989 to encourage reading. This year the Public Schools of Robeson County held the first competition for the second- and third-graders in state history and Robeson is the only county in the state with a second- and third-grade competition.

There is a first-, second- and third-place winner picked at the three competitions. The first-place winners receive a $1,000 check to purchase library books at their school. The second-place winners receive a $500 for books and the third-place winners receive a $300 check. All division winners also receive a trophy and a medal.

Tanglewood Elementary placed second for the second- and third-graders and Green Grove Elementary came in third. For sixth and eighth grade, Pembroke Middle School placed first, Red Springs Middle School placed second and Orrum Middle School came in third.

The second-, third-, sixth- and eighth-graders competed over the past three weeks. The fourth- and fifth-graders will compete Wednesday and Thursday at Lumberton Senior High School.

The Robesonian will publish the photographs of the sixth- and eighth-grade winners on the Education page soon.