Throughout this school year the Battle of the Books (BOB) club has read seven books. These titles include When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jam, Holes by Louis Sachar, Small Steps by Louis Sachar, When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman, Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling, One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, and for the grand finale, Wish by Barbara O’Connor.

I have enjoyed many of these works and I enjoy being part of this club because it pushes me to read books that are out of my genres that I usually read. My favorite book this year is Holes, while Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus (I will refer to this as the cactus book) would definitely be a close second. If you find your “to be read list” surprisingly empty (which, let’s be honest, if you’re a real bookworm, you never find it empty), you should definitely find the time to read one of these books.) Holes, as another one of my article covers, was a great book and the chapters were short. If you have a busy schedule you could read these chapters in a short time while still following Stanley and his adventure. The cactus book was also an amazing read. This followed Aven, a girl with no arms who is forced to move away from all her friends and explore a new town where she discovers more about herself!

Small Steps, the sequel to Holes also can be found in my top three BOB books. Instead of following Stanley, this book follows Armpit, one of Stanley’s fellow campers, Armpit has a list of goals as he attempts to fix his life after leaving the juvenile detention camp of Green Lake. This is where it got hard to judge. I thought these books to be equal, but I have to rate them for my BOB count so here it goes: after Small Steps goes When Stars Are Scattered, and Wish. I thought Omar’s graphic novel was a brilliant story about what refugee camps were about and shows a hopeful boy who wants nothing more than to be reunited with his mother. Wish was more neutral. This was not the best book I’ve ever read, but also not the worst. I had to rank it lower because I love so many books and I had to rate some lower than I would like. Wish is about a girl who gets sent to live with her aunt and uncle who she never met when her father is in a “correctional facility” and her mother prefers to stay in bed in a robe. She finds her and her temper in Colby where she meets Howard, her backpack buddy with that “up-down” walk, but the adorable Wishbone dog was definitely the best part.

Then in sixth place is One Crazy Summer. This book shows the life of three girls who move in with their mother who left them, and honestly I could have gotten more information. Why are they here if she didn’t want them? Why didn’t they go back to their dad’s house when they met her? And actually the reason that she left her children was absolutely horrible! I’m positive that Rita Williams-Garcia could have found a better excuse. (To avoid spoilers avoid these parentheses. The girl’s mother had left when her husband named their daughter, and in my opinion his name for her was much better.) Overall I give this book like a 4/10 stars. This was an okay book, but more answers would be much appreciated.

In last place is When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman. The topic of Anne Frank could have been so interesting! But the way Hoffman executed it sounded more like her note page than the actual book. There are many other books that would have piqued my interest more than this one. I had to listen to the audiobook version because my eyes would not read this book. 

I also asked other BOB members to rate the books. Overall When Stars Are Scattered rated relatively high, Holes had a bit of mixed reviews. While rating high with some people, it was also low for others. I found this was the same with Small Steps, but it was more in the middle of people’s scales though. But When We Flew Away was well at the bottom of the scale with 4 votes for 6th and one for 7th. The cactus book was well loved amongst the BOB members with 3 votes for 2nd and 2 for 1st. One Crazy Summer was generally on the lower scale with the highest rating of 4th place. Wish was also well liked amongst BOB.

When asked about BOB and the books, Lauren Hopper (Hi bestie!) said “I really like [BOB], it’s a great way to be introduced [to] books and genres you’ve never read before.” Mia Reed says that her favorite book is Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. And Mrs. Heath, the club advisor commented “I had such an amazing year with such a great group of students in BOB! I can’t wait for next year.” She would also like to make an announcement to any readers out there…

“Exciting announcement: There will be a special edition SUMMER BOOK BATTLE at the Galway Public Library on July 21. You can sign up and pick up your book at the library. The book we are reading is The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner.”