The Battle of the Books is a reading competition for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in grades 5-8. Students across the nation read the same assigned books and then compete against each other by answering true or false, short answer, multiple-choice, and presentation-style questions about the books they read. The competition promotes literacy among deaf and hard-of-hearing students and is rooted in a spirit of academic competition and sportsmanship.
There are three divisions to accommodate participants’ varied reading levels. The Bison division is reserved for 3rd and 4th grade reading levels; the Blue division is reserved for 5th and 6th grade reading levels; and the Buff division is reserved for 7th grade reading level and above.
The competition includes preliminaries, the playoffs (Buff/Blue), the finals (Bison), and the national competition. In the preliminaries, teams compete with rival schools and programs around the nation, providing an excellent opportunity for these students to meet other deaf and hard-of-hearing students their age who enjoy reading as well. The top-performing teams advance to the playoffs/finals, where the presentation round is introduced. Of these, six final teams from the Buff and Blue divisions (and the Bison championship team) are invited to an all-expenses-paid trip to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., for the national competition.
-Excerpt from Gallaudet University's Battle of the Books homepage