Challenge of the Books

Seven students from Thermopolis Middle School will be competing in the Challenge of the Books on Jan. 10 at the armory.

Challenge of the Books is a contest for middle school students who love to read and they are expecting to host about seven other schools for the competition.

A list of 12 books, which come from the Soaring Eagle and Indian Paintbrush nominee lists, are given to the children to read each August. The students then read each of the books with an emphasis on remembering the content of each book.

Then, in competition, the students are given either a direct quote from a book or a reference and they have 30 seconds to brainstorm and respond with the title of the book and the author. If the team answers incorrectly, their opponent has a chance to answer and receive points.

The team with the greatest number of points at the end of the competition is declared the winner.

At TMS, once the students have read the books, they meet periodically and discuss the books as well as do practice rounds similar to the format of the competition.

While the competition is generally closed to the public, it is fine to pop in and take a peek for a few moments to see what the challenge is all about.

Teacher sponsors for this year’s competition are Kristin Ryan, Eric Kay and Jacob Strenger.