WAR GAMES: preparing for the Battle of the Books

From Spring Hill to St. Pete, students all over the Tampa Bay area are gearing up for the 2008 Battle of the Books competition. Right now, students are reading and rereading the Sunshine State Young Readers and Florida Teens Read nominated books and talking about them at the Times Book Battle Blog. In a couple of months, participating schools will give a qualifying test to determine which students are the most familiar with all the stories from the books on the list. Next, participating schools have their own battle and winning school teams will move on to participate in area battles then district battles. It is exciting as any game show you will find on television and the competition is fierce!

Starting today, Times Book Battle Blog has a new discussion category that is focused on preparing for the battles ahead. We are looking for your ideas and tips on how to get ready for the big event. If you have book battled before, send a study skill or game strategy that helped you get in fighting shape to jwilson@sptimes.com. We will be awarding string backpacks and Subway coupons for the best ideas, so be sure to include your name, grade and school along with your submission.

Headlines Book Battle Contest

The Book Battle Blog for Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award and Florida Teens Read participants provides discussion questions tying the books' themes to stories in the news today. Have you ever thought about how many books started as an idea from a newspaper article?

The relationship between newspapers and books has always been an interdependent one. Many specific ideas for books come from the news and it is not unusual for reporters to become book authors. Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen had written a dozen books before he penned the young adult novels Hoot and Flush. What they all have in common are story lines that began as newspaper reports. Illegal dumping of fertilizer into the Everglades, construction destroying a colony of burrowing owls and the struggle of hurricane survivors are just a few of the topics Hiaasen has turned into best sellers over the years.

To honor this long tradition of mutual benefits between book writers and newspapers and to celebrate the debut of the Book Battle Blog, the Times would like to invite all our young readers to pitch their best story ideas for books that spring from the pages of this newspaper. We will share some of the best ones with our readers and the top three will win some great prizes.

You can download a “Headlines Book Battle” contest form at tampabay.com/nie/.

Here is the format and sample responses students should use to submit their entries:

Name: Bill Bookwriter
Grade: 9th
Teacher: Ms. Readwell
School: Bestseller High School
Teacher email: readwell@pcsb.org

Proposed Book Title: INTERCEPTION

Story idea:
Student reporters Liam Boyd and Tami Namath discover the much-loved football coach at their high school has been illegally videotaping their competition. Do they break the story or support their friends on the team who are up for major college scholarships because of the team’s success?

What St. Petersburg Times article(s) inspired your story idea?

Headline: It’s a mad, mad, mad world
Subhead: In the NFL spy game, videotaping depicts
just the tip of the iceberg
Section and page number: C-1
Writer(s) Joanne Korth, Gary Shelton
Date: Friday, Sept. 14, 2007

Times article summary:
After New England Patriots Football organization is caught videotaping New York Jets defensive play signals in the Sept. 9 NFL game, players and coaches talk about different spying techniques teams use to gain advantage and what does and does not cross the ethical line.