JKHA has launched its first Battle of the Books competition for 5th and 6th grade students. The program kicked off with a video featuring students, teachers and administrators. Since January, the students have been reading books from a list of 12 novels provided by the school’s librarian. As students finish a book, they fill out a “memory jogger” that they will use before the “battles” take place to remind them about details of each book. Teams were announced the week of March 9th and the “battles” set for the week of March 17th. The purpose of the program is to provide motivation for independent reading. So far, it has been extremely successful—students have already read 244 books and there is still time left before the “battles” begin. May the happiest readers succeed!