12-19-2025

The holiday season is notoriously busy, which makes it all the more impressive that enough East Troy Middle School students signed up for the 2025 Battle of the Books to create six teams.

Participation in Battle of the Books or BoB is completely voluntary. The competition is officially a program created and run by WEMTA (Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association). It is their competition I am referencing by State Battle. WEMTA is also responsible for the Golden Archer Awards, which selects five books for each educational level – primary, upper elementary, middle and high schools. Students are meant to read the books and vote for their favorite in February. Both programs encourage reading and a deeper engagement with the material.

ETCSD has held a 5^th grade BoB for decades. That includes some of WEMTA’s titles, but is really an in-house event. Beginning in 6^th grade, students are competing to represent the school in WEMTA’s State Battle.

At the beginning of the school year, students are invited to sign up in groups of 3-4. They are assigned 10 books to read by mid-December. Elimination battles take place then in order to select the State team. This format is familiar to them as it mirrors the 5^th grade BoB program. Once the Final Battle takes place, the winning team is assigned the additional 10 books on WEMTA’s full list. This on top of their heavier academic load.

This year’s Final Battle was between the 7^th grade In It to Win It who lived up to their name and eliminated the 8^th grade team Fungus Maximus. It was one of the most competitive Final Battles seen at the middle school. There are 40 questions with each team have first opportunity to answer 20 of them. Should a team answer incorrectly, the other team is given a chance to steal a portion of the points. This battle was quick due to the fact that both teams knew most of the answers immediately. The final score was 59 to 56.

I am the face of the middle School BoB; however, ETMS library aide Tracey Gross does the majority of the organization and cheerleading as students work their way through the reading list. At the ETHS where participation is lower, the entire program is run by library aide Erin Friemoth.

The first year the ETMS participated, our team took 1^st place in State. That team is now in their junior year and continue to compete. Keep your fingers crossed and let’s hope March brings an update announcing another State Win.

Reading Now: Too Old for This by Samantha Downing

Listening to Now: Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (52 hours total. This will be finished sometime this afternoon on I-94 headed to UW-Eau Claire)