Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl

Several years ago, Mrs. Helen Ruffin, a library media specialist in DeKalb County, wanted to find a way to use the nominee books from the Georgia Children’s Book Awards to encourage her students to read. She therefore created a unique reading competition in game format, called the Reading Bowl, using the award nominees. Her vision was to have teams comprised of students from different schools compete to test their knowledge of the selected books.

Today, the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is open to students in grades four through twelve across the state. The winning teams from the Divisional Bowls meet at the Annual Conference on Children’s Literature in March for the State Championship of the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl.

It’s been a few years since we had a winning Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl team and we’d like to invite students to participate and start reading the books and writing their questions this the summer. It’s easy to join, just look at the titles below and choose which one or one(s) you would like to read. For each book read, create a list of questions about the book for your peers to answer.

If you are interested in being a part of a winning team, please complete the interest survey HERE.

Title / Author / Genre
All American Boys / Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely / Realistic
Anatomical Shape of a Heart, The / Jenn Bennett / Realistic, Romance
Code of Honor / Alan Gratz / Realistic
Dan Versus Nature / Don Calame / Humor
Darkest Corners, The / Kara Thomas / Mystery/Thriller
Dumplin' / Julie Murphy / Realistic, Romance
First Time She Drowned, The / Kerry Kletter / Realistic, Mental Health
Girl In Pieces / Kathleen Glasgow / Realistic
Girl Mans Up / M-E Girard / Realistic, LGBTQIA
Holding Smoke / Elle Cosimano / Mystery, Fantasy
Illuminae / Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff / Fantasy
Labyrinth Lost / Zoraida Cordova / Fantasy
My Lady Jane / Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows / Historical, Humor, Romance
Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here / Anna Breslaw / Realistic
Six of Crows / Leigh Bardugo / Fantasy
This Savage Song / Victoria Schwab / Fantasy
True Letter from a Fictional Life / Kenneth Logan / Realistic, LGBTQIA
We Are the Ants / Shaun David Hutchinson / Sci-Fi, LGBTQIA
When We Collided / Emery Lord / Romance
Wolf by Wolf / Ryan Graudin / Historical (alternate history), Fantasy