Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl

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 Award to encourage her students to read. In 2003, she created a reading competition, called the Reading Bowl, using the award nominees. Her vision was to have teams comprised 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 4-12 across the state. The winning teams from their Local HRRB advance to the Regional HRRB. Winning teams from the regional level meet at the annual Children's Literature Conference at the University of Georgia for the State Championship of the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. 

Along with the University of Georgia’s College of Education and Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers, the goal of the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is, “to foster a love of reading in the children of Georgia and to introduce them to books of literary excellence."

Elementary and middle school students will read from the Georgia Children's Book Award nominees. Each level is comprised of ten books. These books have been nominated for the award by teachers, media specialists, and other children's literature enthusiasts from the state of Georgia.  The final lists of nominees are selected by a committee of teachers, school media specialists, and public librarians. 

High school students will read from the Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers nominees. The Georgia Peach Book Award works to promote literacy skills in teens by highlighting the best current young adult literature. The selection committee is comprised of approximately twenty high school media specialists and public librarians who work with teens. Each year, the committee reads widely (from 150-200 titles) to choose the final list of twenty nominated books. 

The books are considered according to the following criteria:

1. Published within the last two years
2. High reader appeal (in terms of the ability to foster a love of reading)
3. Age appropriateness 
4. Literary quality
5. Representation (Consideration will be given to genre diversity, gender representation, racial/ethnic diversity of cultural, social, political, economic, and religious viewpoints. In other words, does the text serve as a window or a mirror for children?)

We are sensitive to the values of the many families that make up our school district. If you as a parent/coach feel that one or more of the books on the list is not a good fit for your child/student(s), then you are not obligated to have them read it. However, please understand that the HRRB Steering Committee will include questions from all books at the Regional and State HRRB Competitions.