Students from three Santa Maria junior high schools went head-to-head Tuesday during Battle of the Books.
The students from Fesler, Arellanes and El Camino junior high schools have been preparing for the competition since the beginning of the school year.
The Santa Maria-Bonita School District reports some students even started preparing over the summer.
El Camino Junior High came out on top this year, beating defending champion Fesler Junior High.
The event was held at the Souza Center in Santa Maria.
It’s the second year in a row Battle of the Books has been held in person since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Battle of the Books aims to incentivize reading for 3rd through 12th graders. “Students read books and come together, usually in groups, to demonstrate their abilities and to test their knowledge of the books they have read,” the organization states on its website.
Twenty-eight books are chosen by Battle of the Books each year.
Santa Maria-Bonita states the district added two more books this year that were chosen by the junior highs “to challenge themselves.”
