The three 6th graders and a 7th grader sailed through their four preliminary battles like a well-oiled machine. Winning each of the battles, they had 175 points. That seemed like a good number, but we had to wait until all the other battles finished to see how we’d fared. Teams around us talked,whispered and laughed. We could over hear the team totals of the teams around us. We figured we were almost certainly in the next round, the Sweet 16.
We were shocked and elated to find out we had the 4th most points. Woohoo!
The subsequent rounds were elimination rounds. If we won the Sweet 16, we’d go on, if we lost, the tournament was over. The team, two boys and two girls, was ready and played well, handily defeating their competition. We were moving on to the Awesome 8 round, competing against a team in our school district.
One of the members of that team was a former student, but that didn’t stop me from celebrating when they missed a question. The competition was tight; we were ahead by a bit at the halfway point. In the second half, we missed a few, but never lost our lead. At the end, we were ahead by four points. When ased if they wanted to challenge a question, my team said no, but the other team did. When this happens, teams have two minutes to find their answer in book. Fortunately for us, they could not.
That put us in the Fabulous 4 and that we are going to State!
So, my 2017 OBOB season isn’t quite over yet, and that is very okay with me.
booksandbassets 
Congratulations! It is wonderful to see our students succeed.
How exciting! Congratulations to all involved.
This is MY IDEA of a Final Four Competition! Congratulations!
What an exciting experience for you and your students!!
Congratulations to you and your students! That is a lot of reading!
Congratulations! What fun for all involved. This March Madness should get a lot more attention!
Congrats, Adrienne! This is awesome!
Way to go! What an achievement!
Congratulations! What a fun challenge for your students, Adrienne!
Congratulations! I’m not familiar with Battle of the Books, but it’s obvious that you and your students had an exciting experience because you told it so well. 🙂 Good luck at the state competition! ~JudyK
What an exciting post! Congratulations to you & your students. Battle of the Books is clearly a different animal in our school district than it is in your state…I’d love to learn more about how your system works!
Congratulations!!! We were out in the Sweet Sixteen round last weekend and I have to admit a bit relieved as well as sad…
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