Redmond Reporter

Talk about a March Madness nail-biter! On Friday, the fifth-grade Bookworms from Redmond’s Emily Dickinson/Explorer Elementary Schools were the victors in the King County Library System’s (KCLS) championship round of the Global Reading Challenge in Issaquah.

After three rounds of tough questions (10 questions per round), the Bookworms — who were the North Region finalists and the only team from Lake Washington School District — were tied with the Wild Wacky Worldbooks team representing the East Region and the Bellevue School District.

The competition went into “sudden death” mode and after three more questions, the Bookworms were declared the gold medalists. They also received a trophy that they’ll get to keep at their school library for a year — Explorer is a Choice school that shares a campus with Dickinson.

Coached by Dickinson/Explorer librarian Gerry Lanier, the winning team consisted of Dickinson student Kai McConnell and Explorer students Lucas Batey, Ramsey Batey, Berkleigh Rathbone, Cameron Ashton and Kendall Campbell. Another finalist from Explorer, Kevin Calderhead, was sick on the day of the championship so Campbell’s little sister Delaney filled in as the alternate or runner for the Bookworms.

Here’s what the team had to do to get to the “Final Four” round of the KCLS Global Reading Challenge, with winners from the North, South, East and Central regions of King County matching wits:

All teams of fourth and/or fifth grade students had to read the same 10 books selected by KCLS Children’s Librarians. To promote love of reading and foster teamwork among students of different reading abilities, some of the books were more difficult to read than others. Not every team member had to read all 10 books but each team had to be accountable for reading all the books collectively.

Throughout King County, 205 teams entered the challenge, accounting for more than 1,000 students. Contests were held at school levels, then school district levels and then for each region of the county. The teams that survived until the championship round were “the creme de la creme,” said Jerene Battisti, education and teen services coordinator for KCLS.

At Friday’s event, librarians read questions based on the required reading material, which included such diverse titles as “White Star: A Dog on the Titanic,” a Native American story called “Children of the Longhorse,” and a mystery set in Seattle, “Hannah West and the Belltown Towers.”

The questions at the championship were mostly open-ended and some required more than one answer. Questions were repeated only once. Teams had 30 seconds to quietly deliberate, write down an answer and have their alternate take the paper up to the judges’ table. If team mates couldn’t agree upon an answer, it was the team captain’s job to make the call.

Alternates did not participate in voting for answers, nor could team members confer with any members of the audience. If any team challenged an answer they could speak to the judges, but judges had books handy to double-check facts and verify answers.

The question that broke the tie at the championship was related to the book called “The Year of the Dog.” Contestants had to fill in the blanks describing a “blank yellow (room) with blank dancing on the walls.” The Bookworms got it right, answering “buttercup yellow” and “flowers dancing on the walls.”

Before medals were distributed, librarians reminded all competitors that “You Always Win When You Read a Book.” The second place team from Bellevue won silver medals and teams from the Auburn and Highline School Districts were bronze medalists.