The 2011-2012 Elementary Battle of the Books will be held at Meadows Elementary on Friday, April 20, 2012. All eighteen Vigo County School Corporation elementary schools will send a team of five students plus alternates to participate in this highly competitive annual event featuring questions based on the 2011-12 Intermediate Young Hoosier Book Award nominees. The Battle is the highlight of the year for many students who spend all year reading and studying the Young Hoosier books together. Elementary media specialists and Vigo County Public Library’s Cindy Rider write two sets of questions on each book – one set for practice rounds in the schools and one for the battle itself. Retired teachers, current VCSC administrators, PALS (Partners Advancing Literacy Skills) committee members, and Vigo County Public Library staff members participate as volunteer moderators, scorekeepers, and timekeepers. In 2011, Dixie Bee survived six rounds to become champions for the 4th year in a row. Meadows came in second, and Deming was third.

The first VCSC Middle School Battle of the Books was conducted at the Vigo County Public Library with two schools participating; as the event increased in size, it was moved to a larger location. 2011’s event was conducted on May 11, 2011, at Ivy Tech, with Otter Creek taking 1st place, Honey Creek 2nd, and West Vigo 3rd. The 4th annual Middle School Battle of the Books will take place on April 16, 2012, in the auditorium at Ivy Tech. Otter Creek has won every year so far!

The Young Hoosier Book Award (YHBA) program was created by the Association of Indiana School Library Educators (now a unit of the Indiana Library Federation) in 1974-75 to stimulate recreational reading among elementary and middle school/junior high school children and to encourage cooperation between administrators, school media specialists, teachers, public libraries, and the community in providing reading experiences for Indiana school children. By allowing students to vote for their favorite books, media professionals hoped that more students could be motivated to read more newly published books. 4,681 students helped to choose E.B. White's Trumpet of the Swan as the award's first winner. Last year more than 73,000 students throughout the state voted for their favorite book.