Battle of the Books is all about book trivia and friendly competition! Teams of elementary-grade students pit their reading knowledge against each other in this round-robin tournament.
The event occurs at Central Branch on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in April. Battles wrap up in time for students to catch their busses. Schools can start prepping their teams at any time. You can find study tips and resources on our website.
Tournament Structure
Teams score points by identifying the titles, authors, and characters of books from questions based on the plots and settings of stories.
Several days of competition could occur depending on the number of teams participating. Each team participates in 4 out of 5 rounds of play. Junior and Senior Teams only compete against their counterpart teams.
At the end of the tournament, the judges total the scores for the rounds played by each team. The two highest-scoring teams in each grade division compete against each other at the Grand Battle to determine the Burlington Champions. The Junior and Senior Battle Champions go on to compete in the Regional Grand Battle at Halton Hills Public Library in May 2025.
Who Can Take Part
Students may participate on Junior (Grades 3 to 5) or Senior (Grades 6 to 8) teams representing:
- Elementary schools in Halton District School Board and Halton Catholic District School Board
- Private schools located in Burlington
- Burlington homeschoolers
About the Teams
Schools can register one Junior Team and one Senior Team. We will strictly enforce the team composition to ensure fairness among the players.
- Every team has six players and up to three substitutes, to a maximum of nine students.
- Teams have two members from each grade within their division. The three substitutes come from each grade.
- If you do not have enough players from a certain grade, only players from lower grades may substitute. For example: If you have no Grade 7 players, you can have more players from Grade 6, but not from Grade 8.
- Six team members play at one time. One player is the designated Spokesperson.
- All team members may discuss the possible answers, but only the Spokesperson answers for the team.
- If team coaches/managers are students, they cannot participate in the actual competition.