Several Years ago Mrs. Helen Ruffin, a very dynamic and innovative person, was the library media specialist at Sky Haven Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia. In 1985, she served on the selection committee for the Georgia Children’s Book Award nominee program. This literature program began in the Department of Language Education at the University of Georgia’s College of Education. The literature program inspired her to use the nominee books to encourage her students to read. Mrs. Ruffin created a unique reading competition in game format using the award nominees. It was called the Reading Bowl. Her vision was to have teams comprised of students from different schools compete to test their knowledge of the selected books. She shared this vision with her colleagues. They embraced her idea and pressed forward. Today, the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is open to students in grades four through twelve across the state. The first round of the reading bowl competition for Cherokee County elementary schools is on Tuesday, January 17 at 6:00pm at Freedom Middle School.

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