Battle of the Books fundraiser for north libraries tops $2,000, logs 1st year with a perfect score

“What famous inventor did not believe in sign language despite having a deaf wife and mother?”

If you’ve read “True Biz” by Sara Nović, as many competitors at this year’s Battle of the Books did, you’ll know the answer: Alexander Graham-Bell.

Book lovers from all over northern Allegheny County gathered from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Hampton Community Center to compete in the third Battle of the Books trivia contest fundraiser.

Twenty-two teams of four to five adults came prepared with each team member having read at least one of the six books selected for this year’s competition: “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner, “Slow Dance” by Rainbow Rowell, “True Biz” by Sara Nović, “Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers” by Jesse Q. Sutanto, “We Solve Murders” by Richard Osman and “What You Are Looking for Is in the Library” by Michiko Aoyama.

Kati Coleman, the programming librarian for Northland Public Library and head judge of this year’s Battle of the Books, said this year was the first time any team got a perfect score.

The Spinecrackers won first place with a perfect score of 150 points. The Unreliable Narrators followed close behind, winning second place with 147 points.

Liz Cassidy of O’Hara explained how she and her Spinecrackers teammates split up the reading assignments and got every question right.

“We all had a primary and a secondary (book), and then we all shared one of them,” Cassidy said. “So we could kind of specialize.”

Coleman said she started this adult iteration of the Battle of the Books in 2018 after she had organized a teen version while working for Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh “because adults should have fun, too.”

This year’s battle was the first since the pandemic because the participating libraries were in different parts of their journeys rebounding from covid, Coleman said.

“We really didn’t want to do it unless we could have at least the majority of the North Region libraries,” Coleman said. “Even this year, we thought we weren’t going to get it, but then someone said, ‘Well, why don’t you do it in September, for (Love Your Library Month) instead of in the spring,’ which is when we did it before.”

Nine libraries organized the battle: Andrew Bayne Memorial Library, Avalon Public Library, Millvale Community Library, Hampton Community Library, Northland Public Library, Cooper-Siegel Community Library, Northern Tier Library, Sewickley Public Library and Shaler North Hills Library.

Combining the $15 tickets, $5 corkage fee and raffle ticket sales, the battle raised more than $2,000 for the North Region libraries, according to its website.

Since the contest raised at least $500, the libraries also will receive a pro-rated portion of a $200,000 match pool from the Jack Buncher Foundation as part of Love Your Library Month. The libraries will split the money equally and use the money to fund their various programs, Coleman said.

Nick Ryan, Coleman’s husband and master of ceremonies for the event, explained the rules to an excitedly chattering crowd.

“If you get the question correct, you will get five points. If you do not answer the question, you will get zero points. If you answer the question incorrectly, you will get two points. So this system is designed for you to guess,” Ryan said. “So keep that in mind: It’s better to put something down than nothing at all.”

A committee of the librarians, at least one from each participating library, helped pick out the books for this year’s competition.

In considering each book, Coleman said, the librarians took into account how many copies there are and how easy it is to check out the book from the library, as well as whether it had any special connection to a local event. For example, Rowell, the author of “Slow Dance,” was a guest speaker at a 2015 Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures event.

Cranberry resident and Spinecrackers team member Rachel Ockree said their win was a redeeming one.

“We had competed at one of the Carnegie Library Battle of the Books and lost so we were hoping for some redemption,” Ockree said.

The Unreliable Narrators, a team of five Sewickley women, missed only one question: What time does Vera from “Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers” wake up in the morning?

According to team member Valerie Kahrs, they were stuck between 4:45 and what ended up being the correct answer — 4:30.

In preparing to be head judge, Coleman said she made sure she was familiar enough with all six of the books. She went through the questions keeping in mind what she learned from challenging questions in past competitions.

“I tried to pick questions that had a definitive answer. We’ve had some in the past that were a little more open to interpretation,” Coleman said.

According to Coleman, doing events like the Battle of the Books is a fun way for libraries to work together and show off “all that our county has to offer.”

“People don’t always realize that we are all one big county network or know that we are our own libraries separate from CLP,” Coleman said. “It also is fun for us to get a chance to work with other librarians in the county and connect with patrons we might not get to meet otherwise. Showing off each of our libraries helps promote all libraries, and in a month like Love Your Library Month, it’s great to be around our colleagues in a unique way.”