Elmira High School’s Oregon Battle of the Books team is getting ready to both compete and host regionals on Saturday.
The Oregon Battle of the Books, or OBOB, is a competition sponsored by the Oregon Association of School Libraries to promote reading motivation and comprehension.
Elmira’s 2024-25 team consists entirely of sophomores Kiara Vandever, Phoenix Remoir, Bailey Hemple and Kaia Garcia.
Remoir believes in his team.
“I think we have the ability to do well,” the sophomore said. “There are a couple books we have the most down as a team, and some we’re a little weaker on, but I’m not worried.”
The coaches for the EHS OBOB team are Jessica Cooper, Ian Cooper, Sherry Cooper and Stephenie Ziegler.
Jessica Cooper, who is also EHS’s options instructional assistant, is confident about the team’s chances at the regional level.
“I think we have a good chance of being at least one of the teams in the competition,” the coach said. “If we do end up winning at regionals we will move on to the state competition in April.”
Cooper told Falcon News how hard the team has been working in the final push to regionals.
“We still have a couple weeks to prepare, but right now the team has been busy reading and answering questions as a team,” Cooper said.
The competition will begin at 10 a.m. and has no set endtime, but is most likely to end in the mid-afternoon.
Six schools are currently planning to compete at Elmira, including Junction City, Mapleton, North Eugene, Siuslaw and Springfield.
Anyone is welcome to attend the competition and there will be no entry fee. There will also be a snack bar set up by the EHS theater class and all proceeds will go to the theater department.
Students can help the event run smoothly and gain volunteer hours by becoming a scorekeeper or timekeeper, with the benefit of having refreshments provided.
Anyone who would like to volunteer at the event can reach out to Sherry Cooper at scooper@fernridge.k12.or.us or Jessica Cooper at jcooper@fernridge.k12.or.us.
The 2024-25 high school level OBOB books are:
- Bluebird by Sharon Cameron
- Cinder by Marissa Meyer
- Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
- The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
- For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
- The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
- Invisible Son by Kim Johnson
- My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
- Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner
- Saints of the Household by Ari Tison
- Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
