MARSHALL — Judging by the number of books checked out and the number of team participating, the first-ever book battle at West Side Elementary School was a huge success. Marshall School Board members heard about the new reading competition at the work session meeting on Monday.

During the presentation, West Side media specialist Kaia Johnson said the book battle experience promoted reading, diversified reading choices, encouraged friendly competition and teamwork as well as raised school spirit during the all school assembly for the final round of competition.

“We had a lot of really great teams and it was really nice to see students getting excited about reading,” Johnson said.

Thirty-five teams were formed as 137 third-grade students took part in the book battle. They competed in 32 book battle competitions.

“With four people on a team, it came out to three books per person,” Johnson said. “Teams had to make sure each book was read by at least one team member. But a lot of students chose to read more than that.”

The fourth-graders formed 29 teams and had 112 students participating. The students had 27 book battle competitions. Along with Johnson, Tammy Dulas and Joan Winter helped read questions that pertained to the books the students read during the book battles.

“There was a team captain who would give the final answer,” Johnson said. “They’d have 30 seconds to talk amongst themselves and say what their answer was. We had a big single-elimination bracket, so they’d play other teams (at the same grade level). Most of the competitions, until we got down to the end, were during their lunch times. Last, we had to play some rounds first thing in the morning.”

Some of the books included on the third-grade reading list were: “The Mouse and the Motorcycle,” by Beverly Clearly, “Who Was Jackie Robinson” by Gail Herman, “I Survived the Japanese Tsunami” by Lauren Tarshis, “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo, “Stone Fox” by John Reynolds Gardiner, “Boxcar Children: Surprise Island” by Gertrude Chandler Warner and Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark” by Mary Pope Osborne.

Among the 12 fourth-grade books on the list were: “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen, “Holes” by Louis Sachar, “Sarah, Plain and Tall” by Patricia MacLachlan, “Frindle” by Andrew Clement and “City of Ember” by Jeanne DuPrau.

“Something I really enjoyed about the book battle was that it really got the kids to read a lot of these Newbery Medal winners, book that were on the Maud Hart Lovelace list and some of the classics I read growing up, and maybe some of the classics you read growing up,” Johnson said. “On the library website, there’s a list of the top 10 checkouts on any given day, and these were the books that were in the top 10 for about three or four months. Other times, you’d see ‘Captain Underpants’ at the top, so just getting the kids to diversity has been neat to see.”

Three of the books on the third-grade list were not checked out last year. All three were checked out 35 or more times this year. The students checked out a total of 482 books that were on the 12-book reading list.

“I think it’s gotten the kids to really expand their reading and then also have friendly competition and kind of get them ready if they want to do knowledge bowl in high school or middle school,” Johnson said. “It’s a different form of competition that maybe, for kids that don’t do a lot of athletics, it’s a chance for them to have a team environment and experience the spirit of competition.”

The fourth-grade students recorded 577 book battle checkouts this year, including five that were checked less than a handful of times and two that weren’t checked out at all last year.

“I think it’s a really neat way to promote reading,” Marshall Superintendent Scott Monson said. “When you look at the number of copies checked out from last year to this year, it looks like it about five times as many. One of the books on the list wasn’t checked out last year and it’s been checked out 74 times this year. Anything that generates or stimulates an interest in kids reading is a good thing. It’s pretty cool stuff.”

The final two teams at each grade level competed at an all school assembly. Johnson said the competitors stood up on stage and their fellow classmates cheered them on.

“It was a fun incentive,” she said. “The winners then got to use some of our Scholastic dollars from the book fair to go online book shopping. So their reward for reading was to do more reading.”

While the first-ever activity was a hit, Johnson anticipates a few tweaks the next time around.

“We are planning to do this again, but I think we’re going to do the fourth grade in the fall next year and the third grade in the spring,” she said. “It got kind of crazy doing it all at once.”

Johnson is also considering dropping the third-grade reading list down to eight, but sticking with 12 for the fourth-grade students.

“We realized that for third grade, the 12 books were a little overwhelming,” Johnson said. “A lot of the teams weren’t very successful. It’s just a lot of titles even to remember at that age. Then for both grades, we’re going to add an additional four titles for the final eight teams. So then those kids who are the higher readers get some additional reading.”

The board also approved all four action items, including the authorization to advertise and hire a part-time district-wide mentor support position.

“Our plan is to pay for this position over the course of however many years, with staff development funds, which we are automatically allocated 2 percent of our general education revenue, I think it is,” Monson said. “So it’s pretty significant dollars we have and we have some of those dollars in reserve already. I just want you to have an increased awareness that this could or will affect our general fund budget next year, although it is really minimal to be honest with you.”