Colony Middle wins state ‘Battle of the Books’ honors

PALMER — It was a long shot.

If this contest took place on the gridiron, sports writers might say it was a Hail Mary heave 70 yards away from the end zone that tipped the final tally in Colony Middle School’s favor.

But this contest Feb. 22 favored brains over brawn.

Battle of the Books team members — seventh-graders Shannon Powers and Shannon Frati, and sixth-graders Karina Holcomb and Molly Frati — answered 72 questions in five battles in 5.5 hours. The 29 teams in the first round were winnowed to 12 teams in the second round before the top two finishers in each age division faced off in the final round in this war of words.

Colony Middle coaches Robin Turk and Tricia Kenney said the Valley team was ahead by one point when it answered question 16 wrong.

“In which book is a character celebrated for being a genius?” the question asked.

“Legends,” the CMS team answered.

Kenney said she recognized the question as one of 90 she’d written for use in practice and in the district and state contests. She immediately knew her students’ answer was wrong.

Now the teams were tied and the next team to answer correctly would take home top honors. In these sudden-death rounds of the contest, Turk said each team has 15 seconds to answer.

“The pressure is huge,” she said.

When it was Colony’s turn, the team turned to that Hail Mary neither coach was expecting.

“Our reading prodigies, they chose to challenge this,” Kenney said.

Included in Battle of the Books is a process that allows a team to challenge judges’ rulings on incorrect answers. To win the challenge, students have a few minutes to consult the book in question and note the page number and rationale for their argument, Kenney said.

She said part of what impressed her was how quickly Colony students found references in “Legends” to defend their answer.

The first reference talked about the character at a banquet where the speaker described her as “prodigious.” Another reference described the character as sharp-minded. And a third called her a “prodigy.”

“The word prodigy is someone who is gifted in an area,” explained team member Shannon Powers during an interview Feb. 26.

Turk and Kenney gnawed their nails while the challenge judge considered the teens’ argument. In the end, the judge ruled in their favor, saying she was impressed with how quickly they found the pages and that they knew the word “prodigy” as a synonym for genius.

Back at Colony Middle, when staff heard the team had won, they responded with a standing ovation for the group of extraordinary scholars.

“Academic pursuits are just as important and valued,” Kenney said. “I loved that our staff celebrated our readers.”

Principal Mary McMahon said she wants to see the win receive the same sort of fanfare a state championship basketball team would receive.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” she said.

McMahon described the four girls on the Battle of the Books team as good-natured, hard working students who are reaching for their dreams.

For this group of avid readers, one of the challenges was sticking to just the 12 books on the Battle of the Books reading list for sixth- to eighth-grade students.

“It was a sacrifice to limit themselves to those 12 books,” Kenney said.

Students said they read each of the books two to five times apiece in preparation for the contest.

“But it all paid off,” Turk said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268

or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.