By BARBARA PROFFITT | April 1, 2026

On Thursday, March 26, four teams at Pleasanton Elementary fought for the championship title in the first ever Battle of the Books.

The competition was originally slated for the afternoon hours but was moved to the morning to accommodate team members who needed to attend a track meet in the afternoon. To compete, each team, comprised of four members each, had to read twelve different books about which various questions would be asked during the competition.

Those twelve books were:

Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliot

The Million Dollar Shot by Dan Gutman

Found by Margaret P. Haddix

Worth by A. LaFaye

Savvy by Ingrid Law

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen

Becoming Muhammad Ali by J. Peterson & K. Alexander

The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling

The competition began at 9 a.m. with the four teams competing in an all-out war to move up the bracket. From there, based on points received in the first round, the teams were divided into two brackets for next round with the two teams with the lowest number of points, Teams Dinocorn and Mustache Mania, battling it out for third and fourth place and then the top two scoring teams, Old Lady Warriors and D.I.C.E., fighting for the championship.

Team Mustache Mania ended up in fourth place with Team Dinocorn in third. Team D.I.C.E and Team Old Lady Warriors battled it out into double overtime for the championship, with Team D.I.C.E. ending up in second place and Team Old Lady Warriors, despite being a team member down due to Molly Herring being out sick that day, took the championship.

“It was a great competition,” said Nathan Meik, principal and scorekeeper for the competition.

“The kids enjoyed competing against each other and read some really good books in the process.”

“Hopefully we can continue this next year and get more kids and our neighboring schools involved,” he added.

 

Teams

 

Mustache Mania: Jackson Reeves, Jonah Nuzum, Justin Cox, and Barret Irwin.

 

Dinocorn: Avery Hinton, Kaylee Scritchfield, Trinity Guilfoyle, and Miriam Meik

 

D.I.C.E: Danessa Belisle-Martin, Indie Walton, Cadence Guilfoyle, and Erika Martinez

 

Old Lady Warriors: Kenley Holding, Jaelynn Walton, Amelia Ayres, and Molly Herring (not present)