Battle of the books

A few months back
I got a new, cool gig
Middle School Battle Books coach
Oh boy, this gig was big!

We planned our attack
To read 20 books on the list
Bailey, Stella, Megan, Oliver – the team
Read, read, read some more; you get the gist

Titles and authors
Authors and titles
Read, review, quiz one another
Try to recall each book’s vitals

The Rhino in Right Field
Wisconsin tale; the rhino part is true
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish
Travels to Puerto Rico; finds his crew

We headed to the future
Reading about Cinder, a cyborg gem
The Radium Girls, glow-in-the-dark ladies
Tragic and horrific things happened to them

To Night Owl from Dogfish
Written entirely as emails; To:, From:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot
Greg tries to play basketball – what a chum

Catherine, Called Birdy
A young girl from an old English manor
Paradise on Fire is a thriller,
You meet Addy, the escape route planner

The Night Diary
India becomes Pakistan, sad, yet real events
Alan Gratz’s Ground Zero
His books have such suspense

Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs
A tale of magic, family, monarch butterflies
Jennifer Nielsen’s The False Prince
Royalty, fighting, drama, three boys in disguise

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Hard times, their legacy is their land
Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay for Now
Vietnam, men on the moon, the holding of a hand

As Brave As You
Grandparents, birds in the house, milk with teeth
Lisa Fipps’s Starfish
Does the outside matter, or what’s underneath?

There were some great reads
And the discussions were wild and fun
Special thanks to our librarian, Teresa
She’s a pretty awesome one

Fourteen teams competing in the region
Matching sweatshirts, a smile on each face
A day to celebrate that reading is cool
So proud – our team took second place!