The BOB Tournament Goes Online! Book Lovers Compete in Remote Reading Competition

The annual South Orange County Battle of the Books (BOB) competition hosted by St. Margaret’s had a new format this year, but the Lower School students’ love of reading still shined brightly.

The schools coordinated to make sure the event could go on, moving to a virtual competition on Zoom. The change required some altered rules to make it compatible with the format, yet the event was still a huge success as book lovers who worked hard to read and retain books from a 20-title list released last summer were able to compete against peers from other schools.

The competition featured teams from St. Margaret’s, Mission Basilica, St. Edward, St. Anne, St. Junipero Serra, Mission Viejo Christian, Oxford Academy and Tarbut v’ Torah.

Battle of the Books adds a competitive aspect to reading, as students take their knowledge and memory of books they read in a head-to-head quiz-style format. St. Margaret’s had two teams made up of grade 4 and grade 5 students. The “A Boy Called BOB” team consisted of Helen Zhang, Brandon Yang, Hutton Nelligan, Riley Bredall, Gavin Wang, Nathaniel Zhou, Steven Wang and Heidi Beshk, while the “The Book of BOB” team featured Sheridan Hagmier, Jasmine Zheng, Emma Kuy, Lauren Lee, Mariko Hiromura, Josie Barber, Tyler Sant and Dane Olsen.

This year, teams went into private breakout rooms with a coach and a judge and had eight minutes to discuss eight questions regarding books on a 20-title reading list.

After the discussion, the team ahiromurnd their opponent both met in the lobby to review their answers and see how many points each team received. Teams received points for answering with the correct book title and the correct author.

Both of the St. Margaret’s teams had perfect rounds in the morning session, answering all eight questions correctly and had solid afternoon sessions as well.

“Something that stood out to me was how well all the BOBers did with the Zoom format. They all showed amazing online etiquette,” said Darla Magana, who worked with coaches from all the schools to organize the Zoom format. “Students and parents all reported that they loved the experience.”

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of St. Margaret’s BOB coaches Mrs. Magana and Colleen Beshk, many of the perks of being part of a BOB team remained in place despite the social-distancing guidelines. The coaches carefully organized a T-shirt pickup for all the St. Margaret’s competitors. They maintained their distance from the pickup table but was able to say hello and cheer on the students ahead of their competition.

“It was great to see their faces!” Mrs. Magana said.