Word Warriors at the Book Bowl

Eleven elementary book worms competed at a raucous Book Bowl, hosted this year by Nishimachi International School. If you are not familiar with the Book Bowl, it’s a yearly friendly quiz based on the Sakura Medal chapter books, with international schools from around Tokyo and the Kanto area participating. There are 16 to 20 recently-published books chosen each year for Sakura Medal (read more about that here). 

Here is our proud MST Book Bowl team for 2025, wearing the T-shirts they designed themselves, ready for the competition at Nishimachi International School on April 11! 

Students who want to be on the Book Bowl team commit to reading at least five of the books. Some students often read ALL of them. There are usually 12 other teams that we go up against, so more than 120 students participate each year. It’s a lot of fun, and students get to discover new literature and read books that they might not normally choose on their own.

New From Here, by Kelly Yang, was the favorite Sakura Medal book of the team this year. It’s a realistic story about a family moving to a new country during the Coronavirus pandemic and all the challenges they must face together. 

This year there were some very tricky questions, but our team brought their A game and held their own against some tough competitors. Luckily, we had a good cheering section of parents and guests–some from as far away as Iceland–who kept spirits high. Although we did not get first this time (we tied for fourth) everyone had a great time and got to spend an afternoon with other enthusiastic bibliophiles! 

–Elizabeth Ogiyama, Librarian

The MST cheering section was well represented by Iceland.