2009 Battle of the Books Champions!

Congratulations Hauppauge... the 2009 County-wide Battle of the Books Champions!

Here's a bit of background on the program and what how the events unfolded on the day of the Battle:

On June 1st 2009, the titles for the 13th Annual Battle of the Books competition were announced. The books were: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Love among the Walnuts by Jean Farris, Hidden Talents by David Lubar, Turnabout by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Marley: a dog like no other by John Grogran, The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John, Beastly by Alex Flinn, and Last Shot: a final four mystery by John Feinstein.

It is Hauppauge’s fifth year competing in this county-wide competition. Teens entering grades 6-9 were encouraged to join this year’s summer-long program. During the month of July we had several meetings practicing the trivia from each of the books, coming up with a team name and concept for our costume, discussing the books and generally having fun!

At the end of July, we competed in a “mock” battle with Middle Country Public Library and Longwood Public Library, where we scored second place- MCPL scored the highest. After the mock battle all of our team member’s individual scores were calculated and the final six team members were chosen. Their scores were based on quizzes taken throughout the summer, fact sheets they completed, attendance at weekly meetings, and book reviews they submitted to our Library’s Teen Frequency Blog. (We have a few more reviews on their way... keep your eyes open for that in the next few days!)

On Saturday, August 15th 2009, the 6 final team members represented Hauppauge in the county-wide Battle. We battled in the morning session against 17 other teams. Our scores were: Round 1: 19 out of 20 questions correct; Round 2: 15 out of 20 correct; Round 3: 15 out of 20 correct; and Round 4: 16 out of 20 correct. We scored a total of 65 points for the morning session, placing second out of the 18 teams. Emma S. Clark Library in Setauket placed first with 68 points. The two top scorers move on to the semi-finals so we were informed that Hauppauge would indeed be in the semi-finals!

Our team met back at Stony Brook University later that night to have a playoff with the three other top scoring teams: Emma S. Clark and Hauppauge were from the morning session and Hampton Bays and Babylon were from the afternoon session. The first semi-final round was between Emma S. Clark and Babylon with Babylon emerging the winner. The second semi-final round was between Hauppauge and Hampton Bays with Hauppauge emerging the winner. The final lightning round was between Hauppauge and Babylon. Just imagine: sitting on a stage with microphones, where the questions could come from any of the eight books and any team member could answer, but it had to be in 3 seconds! Three seconds! The questions were difficult and the competition was fierce, but in the end Hauppauge was named the official 2009 county-wide Battle of the Books Champions!

We also took the honor for the “Team Spirit” award. This is an award given by the judges based on the enthusiasm and spirit of both the team members as well as the team’s supporters in the audience. It’s a testament to how wonderful and supportive the Hauppauge community was throughout the whole competition.

I am honored to have worked with this year’s team and extremely proud of all of the hard work and dedication it took for them to emerge the 2009 County-wide Battle of the Books Champions! Our team name certainly couldn’t be more true: we ARE Hauppauge: a team like no other!