Eastern Iowa Battle of Books

4th – 6th Grade

The Books

2026 Battle of the Books Titles:

Dogtown — Katherine Applegate & Gennifer Choldenko
Good Different — Meg Eden Kuyatt
Hands — Torrey Maldonado
It Found Us — Lindsay Currie
Just Keep Walking — Erin Soderberg Downing
The Labors of Hercules Beal — Gary D. Schmidt
The Lost Library — Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass
Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II — Adam Gidwitz
Not an Easy Win — Chrystal D. Giles
Rewind — Lisa Graff
The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum — Lisa Yee
Shiny Misfits — Maysoon Zayid & Shadia Amin
The Superteacher Project — Gordon Korman
A Work in Progress — Jarrett Lerner
You are Here: Connecting Flights — Ellen Oh

These 15 titles were chosen from the 25 books on the ICCA Nominee list for 2025. By focusing on a smaller list of books, we hope this will encourage more participants and excitement from students regarding the battle. Click here for a complete list of ICCA nominated books.

The Battle

  1. School Level – Schools determine their best team. If there are three or less buildings in that district/area that participate, one team from each will represent their district in the final battle.
  2. District Level – One team from each participating school in the district will battle each other for the right to represent their district in the final Eastern Iowa Regional Battle of the Books. Sponsoring libraries will host these battles at the place and time of their choosing.
  3. Final Battle – “Eastern Iowa Regional Battle of the Books” will be hosted by the winning team from the previous year unless worked out otherwise. 

2025-2026 Regional Battle Date: March 28th 2026 10 AM | Bettendorf Public Library

The Questions

Create and share practice questions with other Elementary schools here!

Teacher and School Librarians who need more information can use this link to request access to the Eastern Iowa Battle of the Books Google Drive.

Each book is reviewed, and questions are written by public librarians from sponsoring libraries. All questions are answered with the title of a book and the author.

The Students

All students in 4th-6th grades in Eastern Iowa can participate through their school. Please contact your school librarian or English teacher for more information.

Homeschool teams are welcome to participate! Please reach out to your local public librarian for more information on how to compete.