The sixth successful Battle of the Books contest took place at the Glendora Public Library recently in front of a standing room only crowd.

The competition among the 20 teams was tense as the questions got more difficult. After 21 rounds of going neck-to-neck, the winning team was No-Brainer Brainiacs. Team members are Jordan Lavazzeri, a seventh-grader from St. Louise de Marillac; and Jillyn Turunen and Noah Albrecht, both seventh-graders from Goddard Middle School.

Cover to Cover Girls and Minion Swag tied for second place.

Cover to Cover Girls team members are Sarah Brammer, a seventh-grader from Royal Oak Middle School; Tatiana Leschper, an eighth-grader from Sky Mountain Charter School; and Phoebe Garcia, a sixth-grader from Sky Mountain Charter School.

Minion Swag team members are Christian Gregary, Daniel Rea and Cory Chen, all sixth graders from Goddard Middle School.

The event is similar to the library’s Great Trivia Challenge. The difference is that only teens can participate and the questions come from three pre-selected books: “Artemis Fowl” by Eoin Colfer, “Schooled” by Gordon Korman, and “The Wednesday Wars” by Gary D. Schmidt.

A dedicated volunteer committee works for months preparing the 300-plus questions on the three books, and then spends weeks fine-tuning them.

The participants represented many local schools in grades six through 12, including Bonita High School, CAVA, Damien High School, Edgewood High School, Glendora High School, Goddard Middle School, St.

Louise de Marillac, Sandburg Middle School, Southlands Christian School, PSP, Suzanne Middle School, Sky Mountain Charter School, Walnut High School and various home-school groups.

“I am proud of the youth of our community,” said committee chairperson Pat Janes. “This is a great way for the community to show support to our teens and their reading efforts.”

The library thanks those who made the event possible, including the Glendora Rotary Club and the Friends Foundation who sponsored the event, committee members, schools and parents,

and those who made special donations including Crestwood Communities, Roger and Sheila Gutierrez, Thom and Sheryl Hill, Norm and Pat Janes, the Stan Deal family, the Dwight Richards family, Jan White, Bobbi Jefferson and Martha’s Candy.

“The goal of Battle of the Books is to promote recreational reading, build reading skills and comprehension, encourage team-building skills in teens, and, most of all, to have fun,” said Cindy Romero, a senior librarian in the youth services section of the Glendora Public Library.


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