Name That Book

One of Will's extracurricular activities this year is the Name That Book club, and it has been such a big part of our year so far that it deserves its own post! The club members read 30 books (the 20 Bluebonnet titles and 10 others), meet weekly to discuss the books, and then try out to make the team in December. In the spring, practices are twice a week for team members, and it culminates in competition at the end of February/early March. The six team members compete against other HISD schools and are given a quote from a book, and then have 45 seconds to discuss and "name that book!" It's a really fun program for kids who love to read, but it's a tremendous amount of work and takes a lot of dedication to read and reread those 30 books!

Will made the team for the second year in a row, and I have been incredibly lucky to work with our school librarian and another mom to help coach the team. These kids all love to read and it's so fun to work with a group of kids who talk about books constantly. 

Our preliminary competition was Wednesday morning. Last year, we didn't make it past the preliminaries, so our fingers were crossed this time around.

Ready to go!

Our team did a fantastic job and won the preliminary competition against four other schools.

After prelims, the kids enjoyed lunch on the library's courtyard.

And then it was off to finals on Friday!

There were ten schools in the finals; they had all won their preliminary competitions and these kiddos knew the 30 books inside out. Competition was intense! Our team was flawless through the first four rounds and then missed a couple of quotes in the very last round. They ended up coming in second (after a sudden death elimination) and we could not have been more proud of them. They worked SO hard!

The trophy will be added to the collection in the school library.

After competition, the kids and coaches celebrated with lunch out at Little Matt's. 

Winning second place was amazing, but what's even better is that the kids don't want the book club to end now that competition is over. Our librarian has decided to keep the club going and we'll start reading new books and discussing them after spring break. What a wonderful way to encourage a love of books and a community of readers!