Books are to the mind, what food is to the stomach. You would have thought that a collection of students at the CedarBridge Academy had starving brains, the way they indulged in the 2010 Battle of the Books at CedarBridge on Friday January 15.

This competition was organised by the Literacy Team at CedarBridge, the main coordinator of the event being Mrs. Ming, who spent countless hours preparing for the event. According to Mrs. Ming, "the Literacy Team chose the books that would be of interest to students, teenage novels."

The book list was made up of "That was then, this is now" and "A Raisin in the Sun." After the two options were presented to the potential contestants, "That was then, this is now" by S.E. Hinton, turned out to be the number one pick. This was the starting point of the three-month preparation for the 2010 Battle of the Books.

A week before the competition was due to be held, the students took part in an intense interview process. Three Education Officers from the Department of Education participated in the interviewing process. This method was used to assess the knowledge of the novel that each student had attained and also to narrow down the contestants. After a day of questioning, the teams were finally chosen.

The plan was to have a battle of the sexes, and that is just how things turned out. The boys team, the red team, comprised Bryson Doers, Israel Sanchez, Jibri Lawrence Salaam, Al-Reulle Shamsid-Deen, and Dashaun Acka. The girls' team, the blue team, comprised Akeila Richardson, Kellina Minors, Lashaunte Augustus, Davina Jones, and Jennah Fletcher.

On Friday, January 15 the students stood face-to-face, ready to battle it out. The S1 and S2 students were joined by family and friends, ready to cheer the contestants on.

The emcee for the event was M. Gina Davis, who was accompanied by the judges, Dr. Andrea Lightbourne, Dr. Ameenah Ahad, Mrs. Luan Wainwright and Mrs. Icilda Whyte.

The Jeopardy-Family Feud game show structure spiced the competition up a little bit. The teams battled it out, and by the end of the first half, the blue team had a minor lead with 100 points more than the red team. After another intense round, the boys had the lead with a greater margin.

Then the time came for final jeopardy. The teams had to list three themes explored in the novel. With both teams getting the question correct, who would be the winner came down to the final wagers of the two teams. Since the boys had a higher amount to wager, they came out victorious.

When asked about their experience, one contestant replied: "This was an extremely enjoyable experience that enhanced my skills on how to analyse novels and also allowed me to face my fears about public speaking."

Another contestant said that: "The Government should organise events like this because Bermuda does not have many academic competitions between schools. This will give us students the chance to meet and interact with students from other schools in a way that we do not normally experience. It would be a positive thing for our community because students would be spending some of their free time being involved in the competition instead of engaging in negative activity."

This competition has allowed these students to display their hidden talents and knowledge in a productive way.