The Pelham High School Battle of the Books team went undefeated for the second year in a row this past season, with a record of 7-0.

“There wasn’t a team too difficult to beat, but there were strong players from each team,” said Team Captain Kaylyn Alexander.

The other teams consisted of different schools from Calera, Oak Mountain, Montevallo, Chelsea, Shelby County, Thompson and Vincent High Schools.

One of the competitors on the B.O.B. team discussed the range of the books they had to prepare for the competition.

“The list of books was preselected,” Alexander said. “We only had six books this year and last year we had eight. This year we read a memoir, fiction, free verse poetry novel and another fiction.”

The competition is a question and answer round between two teams of up to four competing members, one of whom is designated as captain, and two alternates.

The scores from this past season were PHS-330 v. Calera-210, PHS-310 v. Oak Mountain-195, PHS-365 v. Montevallo-185, PHS-430 v. Chelsea-100, PHS-325 v. Shelby County-50, PHS-340 v. Thompson-225, PHS-310 v. Vincent-75.

The team winning the greatest number of rounds will be declared Battle of the Books champion.

Many of the students prepared for the competition by participating in the Book Club. This club met throughout the year at Barnes and Noble to discuss books they had read.

“Literature meets Jeopardy! What’s not to love,” Alexander said. “We have a great time conversing about the books and preparing for the competition.”

Competitor Megan Rafford said, “For me, I love going to the competition.

The energy and excitement is indescribable.”

Erin Gurley was the first-place high-scorer in the High School Shelby County Battle of the Books competition.

Team members included Alexander, Rafford, Carlye Poljacik, Gurley, Josh Wilson and Lawson Mason. Rebecca Burnett coached the team.

Sarah Farmer is a student at Pelham High School.