Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She began reading chapter books in kindergarten, and her love of literacy just keeps growing, so much so that Audrey McDonald is making history at Foothills Elementary School.

On this episode of the Supercast, meet the first grader who is the youngest ever to participate in the school's “Battle of the Books” competition, helping her team to victory. A team made up of kids several grades older, but like Audrey, they share a love for literacy and a passion for reading.

We are here at Foothills Elementary School with first-grade teacher, Ms. Larson. How are you today?

Alisha. Larson:
I'm great, thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
I have heard about your student who's sitting right here with us, Audrey. Will you tell me a little bit about Audrey before we get started?

Alisha Larson:
Yes, Audrey is a very kind, bright, little first grader. She loves to learn. She comes to school excited to learn, she's great at making friends, she helps others along the way. She's just a delightful student to have and a great friend and a great person.

Anthony Godfrey:
You meet some great people as a first grade teacher, don't you?

Alisha Larson:
Very much so.

Anthony Godfrey:
The very early stages of the great people that they will ultimately become. Tell me a little bit about “Battle of the Books” and Audrey's involvement in “Battle of the Books” everyone may not know what that is. So tell us about “Battle of the Books” and how she got involved.

Alisha Larson:
Yeah, so “Battle of the Books” is for grades third through sixth grade. And it's for people just to have a little extra reading and to make sure that they are enjoying reading and have like a little competition with it. And Audrey, for how much she loves to read and how great of a reader she is, I thought it would be a great idea to challenge her a little bit being in first grade to go into this fun battle to be able to read all these wonderful books that she was already reading at home and to give it just a little bit more of an exciting challenge for her. So usually, yes, as I said, it's for third graders and up.

Anthony Godfrey:
An extraordinary, one extraordinary first grader as well.

Alisha Larson:
Yes, a very extraordinary first grader.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about the battle part because it sounds like you just are throwing books at each other. Throwing the book at someone, literally and figuratively, is something that does happen, but I don't think that's involved.

Alisha Larson:
Right, and I will be honest I actually don't know a whole lot about “Battle of the Books.”

Anthony Godfrey:
You’re a first grade teacher. Most of the time this doesn’t happen.

Alisha Larson:
Because I’m a first grade teacher. All I know though, is you get put into teams and you have to read so many books, and together as a team you have to answer questions. You have to know the author and so that's kind of where the battle part comes out is how much do you know of the books and how much can you remember of those books and the authors.

Audrey:
I also can tell you a little bit more because if the most team, there are two teams who go against each other. So you have team nam