Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl

Helen Ruffin was a media specialist 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.

Helen was inspired to use the nominated books to encourage her students to read. She created a unique reading competition in a game format, using those books. She called it 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, who embraced her idea.

Today, the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is open to students in grades four through twelve across the state. It is a state-wide reading initiative to increase student achievement and reading comprehension, as students develop a deeper appreciation for literature, enhance verbal communication skills, promote cooperation, build self-esteem, and develop team spirit.

Elementary schools will read the 10 books marked for Grades 4-5 that are nominees for the 2023-24 Georgia Children’s Book Award (GCBA). Middle Schools will only read the 10 books marked for Grades 6-8 that are nominees for the 2023-24 GCBA.  The High Schools will read the 20 books that are nominees for the 2023-24 Georgia Peach Award.
During competition students are tested on their knowledge of the books in a quiz bowl format. Winning teams advance to the next level of competition. Levels of competition include district, regional, division, and state competition. District competition takes place in late January for elementary and early February for middle and high school.

All State rules and information can be found on the DeKalb County HRRB site which hosts the state information.

For further information, contact the school HRRB sponsor.

Nekia Roberts
Content Specialist K5 ELA
706-748-2114

Margie Riles 
Content Specialist 6-12
706-748-2115