Isaac's Team Wins 1st!

I promised Isaac I would document every detail of this.  Although he tells me he's going to "publish an entire book about his experience" so I'm sure if I forget anything, he can fill in the details with that.

Isaac tried out for the (K-2) "Name That Book" team this year along with 53 other students (mostly 2nd graders) from our school.  Since it is the elementary school's only intercollegiate activity (besides the spelling bee which is for upper grades only), it is very competitive and there is a lot of school pride for teams that place in the district.  The students are required to read (and practically know by heart) thirty books from an assigned list (which is announced the year before).  Anyone can tryout for the school team.  They just have to read all the books and then show up for a thirty question test.  In the back of my mind I had decided not to encourage my kids to tryout because I felt like we already had enough activities going on.  But two weeks before tryouts, Isaac decided quite adamantly that he wanted to do it.  So. . . I went to work rounding up all the books on the list from various libraries.  On my first run to the library, I came home with one. (which Isaac read in a day) The rest were all checked-out (go figure) and I had to put them on hold.  Luckily most of them came in the following week and Isaac had to scramble to read them in just a few days.  The few books that I failed to get from the library, I ordered from Amazon (2-day shipping) and they arrived in the nick of time.  Isaac read through the whole mountain of books like crazy and finished the very last one on the morning of the test. Whew! 

His last-minute ambition turned into drama though when he came home from tryouts in tears. . . howling, "I lost! It was the hardest test I've ever seen in my life! It was like the questions were trying to trick you! I missed ten!  I know I missed ten because she said if we didn't know the answer we had to put a question mark and I had TEN QUESTION MARKS!"

"Oh well", I told him.  "No harm done, right? I'm still proud of you for doing your best.  And besides, you got to read some really great books, right? right?" (grumble, grumble, cry, cry).

Turns out, when the school announced the scores the next day, not only did Isaac make the "Name That Book" team but his 20 out of 30 (He was right - he did miss ten.) was the highest score in the school which meant he would be the Team Captain.  He was so pumped.  And he took his captain job very seriously, "I'm going to do whatever it takes to lead my team to victory!"

For the next two months he carried two backpacks to school, his regular backpack and his (40 pound) team backpack full of books.  It was like watching Rocky train for the championship.  He practiced for hours everyday with his team answering difficult, riddle-like questions.  He read and re-read and swapped books with his teammates.  Until finally the day of the competition arrived.

The kids were nervous and wiggly.  Isaac was all over the place.

The teams from each school were seated.  The judges and moderators were in place. The audience members were given score cards to keep track of points, although the points were also displayed on the side screen.  And then the questions began.  After each question, the teams had one minute to huddle up and agree on an answer.  Then at the signal all team captains would stand simultaneously and display their answers (a card showing the book title). Then the teams correct or incorrect answers were announced and recorded.  This went on for 5 rounds with 5 questions in each round.  It became quite a nail-biter as a few teams started to pull ahead neck and neck with each other.  By the end of the final round, two teams had tied for first place with perfect scores - neither team had missed a single question.  All the other teams were dismissed and only the two teams, Isaac's team and another team, remained on stage for the tie-breaker round.

The first question was, "He came from Germany in 1817.  Name that book."  Immediately we could see some intense disagreement between Isaac and the rest of his teammates.  Nate and I just looked at each other, "Oh no. . ."  One of the kids even tried to pull Isaac's answer book away from him but Isaac held tight.  Another was shaking her head at Isaac in protest.  The others looked worried and began motioning for the moderator.  But Isaac stuck to his guns and at the buzzer he stood to display his team's answer which, to everyone's shock, was different from the other team's.  There was an intense silence as we all waited for the announcer. The other team held up a biography of Dr. Suess - the only biography on the list. (The book Isaac's teammates were pushing for). Isaac held up a silly fiction book about the gold rush in California.

His answer was correct!  The question, which had been kind of a trick question, had come from the cover sleeve of the book - the epilogue - where the author explained why he had written the story.  Isaac had read it, remembered it, and knew the answer. I've mentioned before how much I love going to museums with Isaac because he reads everything.  I wasn't kidding about that.  There isn't a word in this world that gets past that kid. So with that one question, the 2013 Name That Book competition was over.  Isaac's team won 1st place.

And we were all so proud. The principle couldn't wait to get back to school to announce the news.  And after a fun lunch at McDonalds, the team headed back to Bush where the whole school cheered their return! 

And for a kid whose name was already well known at the school (for better or for worse - mostly worse), it was nice (for once) to have him be the hero of the day.

Isaac worked and practiced hard.  He used his talents.  And got to know some really great books and some really great friends in the process. . .

and that, alone, was the biggest win of all.

Congratulations, Isaacman!