Twelve teams of Clallam County fourth-graders will do battle in a trivia-style competition at 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 24, at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St. Battle of the Books 2017 is the culmination of a year-long collaborative project between the North Olympic Library System, the Port Angeles, Sequim, Quillayute Valley and Crescent school districts and Queen of Angels Catholic School.

Throughout the year, over 200 fourth-graders participated in the program, each of whom received free copies of the five books read as part of the project. The students also received a T-shirt featuring art created by a fellow student during a design contest held last year.

This year’s participating schools include Greywolf, Helen Haller, Jefferson, Forks Intermediate, Olympic Peninsula Academy, Franklin, Roosevelt, Queen of Angels, Crescent, Dry Creek and Hamilton Elementary. This year for the first time a homeschool team is participating as well.

For five months prior to the final competition, library staff led book club discussions at each of the schools to support and encourage student reading.

Books read during the year included “The Fourteenth Goldfish” by Jennifer L. Holm; “How to Steal a Dog” by Barbara O’Connor; “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio; “City of Ember” by Jeanne DuPrau; and “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia. The competition will include trivia questions about each book.

“The program is designed to encourage kids to be lifelong readers,” Youth Services librarian Jennifer Knight said. “We want reading to be fun — having a Battle of the Books program is a way to cultivate that.”

More information

The Battle of the Books program is supported by the Port Angeles Friends of the Library, the Friends of the Sequim Library and the Friends of the Forks Library.

For information about this and other programs for youth, visit the library website at www.nols.org, contact the Youth Services Department of the Port Angeles Main Library at 417-8500 ext. 7705 or send an email to youth@nols.org.