Parents, teachers, and communityresidents are invited to attend the sixth annual Newton County Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, at Newton High School, 1 Ram Way. Twenty-two schools from the county will compete.

According to information from the DeKalb County School System, Helen Ruffin, a library media specialist at Sky Haven Elementary School in DeKalb, served on the selection committee for the Georgia Children’s Book Award nominee program in 1985. The literature program, which began in the Department of Language Education at the University of Georgia’s College of Education, inspired her to use the nominated books to encourage her students to read.

Ruffin created a unique reading competition in game format using the award nominees, calling it the Reading Bowl. Her vision was to have teams of students from different schools compete to test their knowledge of the selected books.

Today, the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is open to students in grades 4-12 across the state. The competition takes place on a Saturday morning in late winter.

This year’s competition will mark the 15th annual countywide competition.

A release from the Newton County School System said coaches and team members have put in hours of reading and practicing in preparation for the event.

Team members are required to read books from the Georgia Children’s Book Award nominees (elementary and middle schools) or the Georgia Peach Book Award nominees (high school).

The first- and second- place teams in each of the levels – elementary, middle, and high – will go on to the divisional level at Clayton State University in February.

Winners from the divisional level may progress to regional and state competitions.