Battle of the Books

All fourth and fifth graders who attend a Birmingham Public School are eligible to participate. Each team must have 3 to 6 students and one adult team coach. It is not necessary for team members to attend the same school or be in the same grade. Students are responsible for forming their own teams. If you cannot find a team by Sunday, February 1, please contact Stephanie Klimmek at Stephanie.klimmek@baldwinlib.org.

Registration begins on Monday, January 12, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. The team coach should submit one registration form for the team. The registration form will be posted here on Monday, January 12. The last day for registration is Sunday, March 1, 2026.

The coach is the contact person between the Battle team and the Baldwin Public Library. Coaches help their team create a name and build team spirit, register their team for Battle, make sure their team has transportation to and from the Battle, and make sure their team knows what to expect on Battle Day. A coach may be any interested adult: parents, grandparents, teachers, babysitters, etc.

The Battle will take place at Groves High School on Saturday, March 14, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. and teams should be at Groves by 9:45 a.m. The Battle will start at 10:00 a.m. and end by 11:30 a.m.

• Students will use their BPS issued laptop and Google Forms to answer the Battle questions.
• Students sit with their teams together on the gym floor during Battle while the coaches sit in the stands with the other audience members.
• Small blankets to sit on, BPS laptop, and covered water bottles are allowed but all other items, including food, other mobile devices, and personal items must be left in the stands with coaches.
• We will read each question twice. Students have 15 seconds to choose the right answer and then the next question will be read.
• After all questions have been read and all Google Forms have been submitted, we will give the correct answers and announce the winners.
• First, second, and third place winners will receive a prize. There are also awards for Best Team Name and Best Team Spirit.
• Teams found cheating and/or communicating with audience members risk disqualification.

There are 25 multiple choice questions worth 1, 2, or 3 points. There is a total of 50 possible points. There are 3 fill-in-the blank tiebreaker questions that will be used in case of a tie for first, second, or third place.* The Battle questions will focus on the following:

• A direct quote from a character in the book
• A question about something that happens in the book
• A passage taken directly from the book
• A question about something from an illustration or a picture
• A question about a title and/or author

Example questions will be available by January 15, 2026.

*Tiebreaker questions will require multiple answers and will be scored based on the number of answers. Teams earn 1 point for every correct answer but will lose a point (without going below zero) for every incorrect answer. Point values will not be announced for tiebreaker questions in advance.
Example Question: List every color of sticky note Ben covers Janet with in Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Doom.
Answer: yellow, pink, green, blue, and purple.
There are 5 colors so teams can earn up to 5 points.