Lincoln Park Team Wins Annual Battle of the Books
One of two teams from Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School won the 2018 Battle of the Books competition, sponsored by the Sewickley and Moon Public Libraries.
The Nerds for Words team, which consisted of eighth-graders Amanda Smith, Emmy Scullion, Shaiane Matotek, and Skylar Van Winkle, finished at the top of 36 local seventh and eighth grade teams competing Feb. 28 at Quaker Valley Middle School.
Teams were required to read and become experts on 10 different novels. Both teams spent months reading the assigned novels, and each student was responsible for becoming an expert on several of the books. Many of Lincoln Park’s team members read all 10 books.
On the evening of the competition, both teams and their managers, along with several parents, met at Eat’n Park for final preparations. The auditorium was packed with all 36 teams on stage in pods set up to allow team discussion. The competition consisted of three rounds of 10 questions. The first five questions were asked and then answers were revealed. Teams were awarded 4 points for each correct answer and 1 point for the author’s name, which had to be spelled correctly.
At the end of the three rounds, Lincoln Park’s winning team was tied for first place. After an intense tie-breaker round — so intense the librarians were forced to create questions on the spot —Nerds for Words won the competition. Each member of the winning team received a $25 gift card for Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley. Lincoln Park’s other team, the Literary Leopards also placed near the top. The Literary Leopards team consisted of Julia Benedetto, Tyler Johnston, Eli Lishack, Mackenna Guadagnoli and Miriam Whitacre.
