Students from around Eastern Oregon battled hard at the Region 6 Oregon Battle of the Books competition. The event was held March 10 at Eastern Oreogn University in La Grande.

The competition was open to teams from across Eastern Oregon, including Baker, Gilliam, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and Wallowa counties. Although 13 teams competed, Umatilla County schools dominated the elementary division semifinals with West Park Elementary School, Desert View Elementary School, both in Hermiston; McNary Heights Elementary School, in Umatilla; and Helix Elementary School battling with their literary knowledge.

A Helix Junior High team and a Hermistons Desert View team will compete in the state level competition Saturday, April 14 at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.

Epic 4, the Helix team that placed first in the sixth-eigth grade division, includes Ashton Marks, Darion Burgess, Bethany Newtson and Caiden Marks.

The Purple Angels of Desert View placed first in the third-fifth grade division. Team members include Genesis Pinto, Hannah Arey, Gage Molloy and Madison Wilson.

It is very encouraging to see students put so much effort into reading, rereading, and studying the sixteen titles in order to prepare for this high level of competition, especially considering that the students who read all 16 titles read a total of 444,805 words, said Kristi Smalley, Hermiston School District media specialist. Since the students reread several of the books, the total words read per student is over the half a million mark.

Smalley said not only did the students read an incredible amount of words, they also enjoyed the stories and the wide variety of genres represented in this years competition.