Throughout the school year, SD73 students have been busy reading, discussing, and preparing for the annual Battle of the Books event! 

This popular year-long reading motivation program is meant to encourage reading and to broaden reading interests. Teacher-Librarian organizers carefully select suitable and engaging books for three categories of competitors to read for Grades 3-7 students. The committee varies the titles chosen by genre and difficulty so that the readers may encounter a broad range of books. In the end, participating students each read 10 books. 

Congratulations to the following winning teams from the 2026 Battle of the Books:

• Parkcrest Elementary Grades 3/4
• Summit Elementary Grade 5 
• Bert Edwards Science and Technology School Grade 6/7

Originally an Alaskan Reading Motivation Program, a local Teacher-Librarian introduced this program to SD73 in the spring of 1987. That fall, SD73 Teacher-Librarians reorganized the program to incorporate Canadian content and developed a district model.

The first official District Battle of the Books was held at Parkcrest Elementary School on April 13, 1988. Eighteen elementary schools from across the district participated. The Kamloops Battle of the Books program has grown to include as many as 30 elementary schools. 

The secondary school version, Battle Reboot, has been running for three years and expanded this year to include Grades 11 and 12 students. While the format is more of a jeopardy style with creative competitions, the goal remains the same—to encourage students to read and to foster a joy of reading. 

This year, we had 77 teams competing in the elementary Battle of the Books with eight teams per grade eventually advancing to the District Battle of the Books at the Henry Grube Education Centre on Thursday, April 23.

The Elementary Battle of the Books Committee is now finalizing the 2026-2027 list and will post the new list of books for schools, community, and public libraries in May. Visit https://bob.sd73.bc.ca/ for more program details.

Thank you to all the SD73 Teacher-Librarians for inspiring students to love reading, which is central to the Intellectual Development Priority, including literacy and numeracy, in the District Strategic Plan.

As part of the Intellectual Development priority, the district is committed to supporting students to develop foundational literacy skills and passion for multi-literacies by providing diverse learning opportunities, such as Battle of the Books, that promote joyful reading, thoughtful written responses, and interesting conversations.

Story provided by Andrea Wallin, District Library Learning Commons Coordinator