Battle of the Books Brings Out Bookish Enthusiasm

Desert Sands Unified participated in Battle of the Books, a nationwide competition for students in K-12, at Palm Desert High on March 7. This year, La Quinta High School’s team was comprised of nine members, three of which were returnees.

The team members that competed in this year’s competition were Katie Fisher ‘20, Serena Gomez ‘21, Lizbeth Luevano ‘20, Isabella Beltrán ‘18. The other members were Kenny Yang ‘19, Mikayla Fazzone ‘21, Katryna Holguin ‘18, Camilla Uribe ‘21, and Emma Graham ‘21.

Ms. Chesebrough, an English I teacher, has been coordinating the competition for three years. “When I used to teach in Alaska, I did the elementary level of the competition. I’ve been doing the competition here at La Quinta for the last three years,” she said.

Chesebrough got students involved in Battle of The Books by telling her English classes about the competition and informing other English teachers about it to spread the word. “If that they had a student they saw was a reader, send them my way and see if they’re interested in the competition,” said Chesebrough.

Fisher got involved in Battle of The Books just this year. “I like to read and I thought Battle of the Books would be a good opportunity to read some new books,” she explained.

The five books the team read this were “A Beautiful Poison,” “The Absolute True Diary of A Part-Time Indian,” “All The Bright Places,” “Ready Player One,” and “The Higher Girl.” Once the students finished the books, the team gets together and writes down questions about the books. Then, they turn them into the coordinator and the competition is held.

Despite losing to Indio High, they look forward to competing next year.