Book Battle returns

Junior bibliophiles and lectors from Upper Harbour and West Auckland schools came together to pit their literary wits against each other in the annual Book Battle.

Around 160 pupils from junior and intermediate schools congregated at Hobsonville Point Secondary School for the two rounds of competition on June 19.

Now in its third year, Marina View School librarian and coorganiser Vicki Munro said the battle improves with each year.

‘‘The kids were all excited and buzzing, and we were pretty excited. Everything just went so well.’’

Junior teams, years five and six, received 70 questions, while intermediate teams, years seven and eight, had 100 to answer.

Questions were multiple choice and came from different categories such as book quotes, authors, New Zealand and super heroes. Each round took around one and a half hours to complete.

Schools came from all over the region, including Greenhithe School, Hobsonville School, Marina View School and Massey Primary.

A team from Waimauku School won the year seven and eight event, and a team from Peninsula Primary won the year five and six event.

Munro said she was grateful to sponsors Barfoot and Thompson West Harbour, as well as book sponsors Miller Books, Wheelers and Scholastic for spot prizes.

Barfoot and Thompson West Harbour residential sales representative Tony Buckwell said supporting the Book Battle was a perfect fit for the company’s values, as well as being another link to literacy programmes, such as the Young Authors’ Challenge - a book featuring stories by school children to raise money for Starship Foundation.