Martha Currie Elementary wins 3rd annual Surrey Schools \u2018Book of the Year Battle\u2019<\/p>\n
Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, August 12, 2026<\/p>\n
Martha Currie Elementary School is back in the winner\u2019s circle.<\/p>\n
After winning the inaugural Surrey Schools \u201cBook of the Year Battle\u201d in 2024, the school has once again captured the title in 2026.<\/p>\n
The district\u2019s third annual literacy contest showcased a battle between intermediate students from schools across Surrey and White Rock. The kids tested their knowledge of the 10 Book of the Year candidates from the 2026 book awards.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been all in the family in Cloverdale for the first three years of the contest as George Greenaway Elementary took the top spot in the second annual event in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thrilled to have reclaimed it this year,\u201d said Dil McDonough, a teacher-librarian at the school. \u201cOur team was made up of six Grade 6 and 7 students who demonstrated exceptional commitment and enthusiasm for reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonough said the kids\u2019 success is a \u201ctestament to their dedication, teamwork, and genuine love of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Grade 6 and 7 kids had the task of remembering plot points, characters, and unique details from books such as: Lost at Windy River by Tina Rathberger, We Are Big Time by Hena Khan and the 2026 winner, Lion Dancers by Cai Tse.<\/p>\n
As part of the rules of the contest, students do not get any help from teachers.<\/p>\n
According to the August press release from Surrey Schools, students earn the accolades on their own, \u201cindependently reading, studying, and preparing for this year\u2019s contest.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonough said the contest wouldn\u2019t happen without the work of teacher-librarians.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir efforts made this year\u2019s competition possible, and we are grateful for their commitment to foster a culture of reading in our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more info on the contest, or to find a list of nominees for 2026 Book of the Year, visit surreyschools.ca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martha Currie Elementary wins 3rd annual Surrey Schools \u2018Book of the Year Battle\u2019 Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, August…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-855867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}