Twenty teams participated in the Sixth Annual Battle of the Books Bash Monday, March 12, at the Marshalltown Public Library.

The BOB season started with 42 teams of five students from Lenihan Intermediate School and St. Mary’s. Each team was assigned to read 40 books from this year’s list. Before the BOB Bash all the teams took a qualifying test, which included the memorization of all 40 authors and a question from each of the 40 books. From there 20 teams qualified for Monday’s event.

The morning consisted of workshops based on the books, including a “Confectionary Concoction” workshop run by Pat Byer from Lenihan Intermediate. One of the books on this year’s reading list was Candy Makers by Wendy Mass, so to go with the candy theme students made colored sugar art, colored popcorn balls and had a chocolate fountain. Lenihan Media Specialist Erin Feingold led a seminar on how to create animations using the computer program Scratch.

This was the first year every student participating was able to receive a book. All participants also received certificates, while members of the top three teams received medals as well.

The winning teams were:

• First Place: The Lime Green Banjo Squirrels Bearing Scarves
• Second Place: Book Brigade
• Third Place: The Hippie Page-Turners

Sponsors were Friends of the Library, Lennox, and Assistance League.

Click on a photo to enlarge: