Colchester: Book battle is hard fought contest (From Essex County Standard)

Colchester: Book battle is hard fought contest

9:00am Friday 10th July 2009

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Fairies and urchins rubbed shoulders with Sherlock Holmes and the Men in Black at a school competition.

Forty teams of year seven pupils from St Benedict's in Colchester took part in Battle of the Books, where they were asked to read as many tomes as possible from a list of 30.

These included quick reads like The Number Seven Shirt by Alan Gibbons and non-fiction works like Greek and Norse Legends by Rodney Matthews as well as novels such as War Horse by Michael Morpurgo.

The competition itself went right to the wire, with Biting Back Books winning over the Pink Panthers by just one point.

Pupils also took part in a fancy dress contest, with all of them invited to come to school as their favourite characters.

The winners were Kathleen Dunbar as Goddess Athena and Alexander Robertson as Sherlock Holmes.

School librarian Sue Leete, who helped organise the day alongside the English department, said: “It was fun, noisy and good-natured, with the aim of encouraging students to read for pleasure.

“We've been running the competition for about six years now and this was perhaps our most successful ever.”

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