If you thought reading the assigned books in your English classes was hard, then you have no idea what’s it like in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. 

The Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is an academic bowl-style competition where 4th-8th grade students across Georgia are quizzed on the 20 nominees for the Georgia Book Award, while 9th-12th grade students are quizzed on the 20 Georgia Peach Teen Book Award Nominees. The books are changed year to year by the University of Georgia’s Georgia Book Award Nomination Committee.

The competition is named in honor of its founder, former Dekalb County Media Specialist Helen Ruffin, who first came up with the idea in 1986.

Ruffin’s idea was finally set into motion 30 years later, when the competition became a state-wide reading initiative for the first time during the 2009-2010 school year.

The school’s own reading bowl team competed on Feb. 10 in the Helen Ruffin high school metro regionals at Clayton State University. This comes on the heels of the team winning first place in the Fulton County Schools High School division in January.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Cambridge High School website

Reading Bowl team members who competed in the Fulton County Schools Divisionals. Front: Freshman Katie Krzanich, Juniors Morgan Pfohl and Kirti Muthyala, Sophomore Julissa Duarte, Freshman Mayuri Jain and Sophomore Carolyn Collins. Back: Junior Katie Leffler, Sophomore Rylee Ovrevik, Juniors Aditya Sayal and Daniel Jimenez and Head Coach Laura Morgan.

This is the 2nd consecutive year in which the reading bowl team,(who call themselves “The Defenders”), has won the county competition and participated in the metro regions.

Last year’s team placed first in the Fulton County High Schools division and placed second in the metro region, despite an error in the scoring. Because of this, The Defenders were able to participate in the HRBB North division, but did not place or move on to state.

This year’s team members, including The Bear Witness’ Managing Editor Daniel Jimenez, have been preparing for the reading bowl since the start of spring, which is usually when the list of books is revealed.

“Some of us have been reading the books since spring and throughout the summer,” said new team member and freshman Mayuri Jain.

The list of 20 books is an assortment of different genres that pique the interest of high school students around the state, while also serving a higher purpose of educating students.

Some of these books include the police brutality focused “All American Boys” by authors Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds, and young adult romance novel “Dumplin’,” a number one New York Times bestseller by author Julie Murphy that’ll soon become a major motion picture.

The stars of the film will be actresses Jennifer Aniston and Dove Cameron. Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton will write and compose original music for the film.   

Reading bowl Coach and Media Specialist Laura Morgan said she’s proud of the team’s accomplishments this season.

“I am really proud of how everyone stepped up, read the books and practiced,” said Morgan. “They did the things needed to be successful.”

Despite The Defenders’ season coming to a close this year, many of them have said that they’ll walk away will some really great memories.  

“Despite the pressure of trying to win, we had fun,” said junior reading bowl member Aditya Sayal. “For example, we played “Hangman” before the competition started.”

With only a few weeks left until the new list of books is released to schools, The Defenders say they’re ready to reach state and become the state champions for the first time.    

“Whatever it takes, book by book, we’re ready to win it all next year,” said Sayal.