There’s no place like Tome! For anyone unfamiliar with the organization, “Tome Society is a book club for students in grades 2-12. Students in club chapters read and discuss great books, create items to enter in literacy-based competitions, and participate in virtual and in-person literacy events.” The C. A. Gray Reading Bowl Team has been competing with Tome for the past seven years. Students dedicate time at home, before school, and during weekly club meetings to read and study ten novels on the Tome “It List.” All students on the team complete three online quizzes each season over those, and each member also creates a project based on one of those books to show off their individual skills. The diverse categories include digital book cover redesign, poetry, theme essay, infographics, video commercials, and more.
The society’s annual culminating event is called Tomecon. Think of Tomecon as a Comic-con for book nerds. Authors from all over the nation, many Tome It List authors, converge to present sessions and meet students. Organizers even booked Australian author and journalist Dave Reardon this year. Keynote speaker and best-selling author Jennifer Nielsen spoke to students about learning from failure as she held up stack of publisher rejections for them to see.
Only the top four scoring teams in the nation are invited to compete in a live buzzer-style competition while at Tomecon. C. A. Gray’s reading bowl team made it into that fourth slot with an overall accuracy average of 92.8% across the three online quizzes. The “super six” members who represented the school in this final round spent the weeks leading up to Tomecon reviewing sample questions and slideshows to refresh their memories of the ten books. After three rounds of stiff competition, the team won 2nd place. Student Claudia Tyson also took home third place for her original work in the Fan Fiction category. Team coach Ms. Melanie Turner writes, “This is the fourth time that C. A. Gray’s team has made it into the final four competition, and we are consistently the only school in that round hailing from below the gnat line. I am so proud that my team holds their own there against Metro Atlanta, private schools, and homeschool groups. These teenagers have plenty of options on how to spend their time. Ninety percent of the work required for this competition happens at home or before school, and I am so proud of them.”
Pictured left to right: Katherine Autrey, Billie Jo Richardson, Paige Autrey, Brandy La, Claudia Tyson, and Rinoa Bass
Additional team members who did not attend Tomecon: Brad Bradford, Heidi Castro, Gavin Cooper, Kamarii Lawton, and Valerie Ramirez
Team coaches: Ms. Melanie Turner and Mrs. Rebecca Mintz
https://www.colquitt.k12.ga.us/schools/gray/students/tome-team-hall-of-fame