Proud of the students' commitment and achievement!

"What happened to the previous governess of the children?" in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and "What is a black day for Christopher?" in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon  were just two out of hundreds of questions for students from all over Bavaria who dared to take part in the Battle of the Books.

The Battle of the Books is a reading incentive program for advanced English students which is organized and hosted annually by the DAI Nuremberg. Students read books and come together in groups to demonstrate their abilities and to test their knowledge of the books they read.

This year's competition was the 10^th anniversary of this outstanding event. The battle has become so successful in the last few years that 28 teams of Bavarian schools were challenging each other in 2018.

Students had been preparing for the competition since October. In the course of time every student acquired detailed knowledge about at least one book. One skype meeting with members of the jury helped the students to focus on the most important aspects of the books.

Jennifer Gavito the U.S. Consul General in Munich welcomed the battle teams and Public Affairs Officer Stephen Ibelli asked the questions and led through the event.

During the battle one team had to beat two other teams by pressing a buzzer fastest in order to claim the right to answer the question. The questions ranged from detailed to general knowledge of the works.

In the exciting preliminary round our students kept level with most of the teams. Unfortunately some of our students were too excited to buzz quickly enough to bring victory home. Nevertheless, they put up a brave fight. The accompanying teachers Günter Ströhl, Melanie Müller, and the retired colleague Wolfgang Götze, were proud of the students' commitment and achievement. 

Students had to cover the following classics of American literature:

Special thanks to our tech-savvy colleagues Tobias Krafczyk and Michael Kaulbach for making the skype meeting possible. We look forward to the next battle.

Melanie Müller und Günter Ströhl