Three Tampa Prep Middle School students participated in the Bay Area Association of Independent Schools, BAAIS, Battle of the Books competition and came in FIRST PLACE!
This year's Bay Area Association of Independent Schools (BAAIS) Battle of the Books competition brought five independent Middle School teams with up to five students each from grades 6-8. The competition focuses on books from the Sunshine State Young Readers Award (SSYRA) books, a list of 15 current middle grade titles selected by a committee of school librarians from across the state of Florida. Our students had to read these books and answer trivia questions for the competition.
This year was Tampa Prep's first year participating, so placing first was quite an honor. Our team consisted of these sixth graders: Mercedes H., Noémie M. and Joseph Z. These students worked hard reading and studying the SSYRA list. For much of the competition we were neck-in-neck with another team, but we pulled ahead by two points during the last round.
Battle of the Books team tryouts are held in the spring and are open to any 6th, 7th or 8th grader who has read at least three books on the SSYRA list by the time tryouts begin. The list for 2019-2020 is already out, so interested students can get a head start by reading some of the books over the summer.