A barrage of book smarts

Afriendly feud has sprung up among students seeking the spoils of literacy.

PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff Upper Freehold Regional Middle School students (l-r) John Bardwil, Alyssa Sargent, Brianna O'Boyle, Marcus Tsang and Jackie Bucchere will compete in the regional Battle of the Books competition later this month, having won their school's competition last month. America's Battle of the Books, a reading incentive program for students in grades 3-12, kicked off in December with kids in New Jersey schools asked to voluntarily read books outside the realm of their regular classroom requirements. Last month, the students came together in their schools for the first in a series of battles, during which they had their knowledge of the books they read tested.

In the Upper Freehold Regional School District, three teams of middle school students demonstrated their abilities to retain the information presented to them in the books and have advanced to the Central Jersey Battle of the Books competition, where they will vie against at least a dozen other schools seeking to prove their literacy wit.

Some of the books middle school students had to read this year in preparation for the annual Battle of the Books competition held in schools across the state. Although the school district has one seventh grade team and two tying eighth-grade teams that advanced to the next level of competition at Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School on May 8, the eighth-graders have a class trip planned and will not be able to attend. However, eighth-graders Michael Anthony, Jaemin Lim, Hannah Murphy, Rachel Narozniak, Julie Scesney, Everett Tsang, Alex Valentino, Sarabeth Madia, Marc Kwietniak and Lauren Karlen deserve recognition for their reading prowess, according to Stanley Kugel, the school district's Project Discovery coordinator.

Seventh-graders Jackie Bucchere, John Bardwil, Alyssa Sargent, Marcus Tsang, Jesse Miller and Brianna O'Boyle are preparing for the competition, brushing up on the smallest of anecdotes in the15 books they had to read among them.

The books on the list prepared by New Jersey educators range in reading difficulty from fifth grade content to 12th grade content. Each of the students declared their favorites on this year's list.

Brianna said she liked the sad story "Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonneblick, which discusses the life-changing events of an eighth-grader whose brother has been diagnosed with leukemia.

Marcus and Alyssa both enjoyed "Stormbreaker," an action-packed kid spy story by Anthony Horowitz. John said his favorite, "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke, presented a lot of fantastical ideas such as readers having the unusual ability to bring book characters into the real world. Jackie said "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan presented a story that kids her age might not necessarily read, but should because it's about different cultures.

" 'Homeless Bird' teaches that you can be less fortunate, but still be happy," she said.

The students on the advancing team said that they hope to do well in the regional competition, but will have enjoyed participating in Battle of the Books regardless if they win or not.

Jackie said, "We read books that we normally wouldn't have read, learned about new authors and different genres."

Marcus added, "We learned about different styles of writing."

Brianna, who would eventually like to write a book, said, "I think it's amazing how so many different authors can come up with so many different ideas."

John said, "Reading is so important because when you read, you learn a lot of new words, which helps on tests and throughout life."

Kugel said, "Anything that encourages kids to read quality literature is a good idea."

The Upper Freehold School District has participated in Battle of the Books for the past 10 years. The middle school students advancing to the next level of competition will compete against teams from other Central Jersey schools. Each team will have the chance to answer 10 questions. Five points will be scored for each correct book title and three additional points will be scored for each correct author. After each team has been given the chance to answer 10 questions, the final score will be announced and the winner declared.