Almost every team this year appears to have decided amongst themselves that there is one side that gets "the better questions" or "the easiest questions." I found this interesting so I decided to keep track of how often the odd or even team won throughout our pool play battles this year.

We have 95 students in 22 teams so with 44 pool play battles, it felt like enough battles to start to see if there was a pattern.

The official tally sheet

As you can see, teams who answered the odd questions won 22 times. Teams with the even questions won 20 times. There were two ties where teams got the same score.

It really was almost 50/50 as you might expect but it was fun to see the results. Many of the kids will tell you that in the coin toss, "tails never fails." Others will say that's only true half of the time.

Maybe next year we will keep track!

Community Contributions

• 400+ community-contributed questions
• 45+ unique contributors
• 30 books covered across all three divisions

Here's how community questions break down by division:

• Elementary (3-5): 134 questions covering 14 of 16 books
• Middle School (6-8): 239 questions covering 15 of 16 books
• High School (9-12): 34 questions covering 1 of 12 books

Question Coverage by Book

We analyzed all 10,766 questions across 44 books to see where coverage is strongest and where we need the most help. Books marked with ⚠️ have the lowest question density and would benefit most from community contributions.

Elementary (3-5) — 5,204 questions across 16 books

The elementary division has the best coverage overall, averaging 1.73 questions per page.

• Squished by Megan Wagner Lloyd — 204 questions (0.84/page) ⚠️
• City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau — 240 questions (0.89/page) ⚠️
• Odder by Katherine Applegate — 253 questions (0.95/page) ⚠️
• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein — 287 questions (0.99/page) ⚠️
• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai — 257 questions (1.00/page)
• Better with Butter by Victoria Piontek — 312 questions (1.03/page)
• The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir — 279 questions (1.13/page)
• The Million Dollar Race by Matthew Ross Smith — 242 questions (1.17/page)
• The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass — 326 questions (1.52/page)
• Just Like Click by Cait Carthen — 272 questions (1.55/page)
• The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow by Elaine Dimopoulos — 289 questions (1.60/page)
• Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson — 409 questions (1.79/page)
• The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler — 427 questions (2.04/page)
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen — 385 questions (2.08/page)
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry — 293 questions (2.22/page)
• Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome — 729 questions (6.88/page)

Middle School (6-8) — 3,815 questions across 16 books

The middle school division averages 0.81 questions per page. Several books need more coverage.

• Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee — 121 questions (0.39/page) ⚠️
• Rain Rising by Courtne Comrie — 181 questions (0.46/page) ⚠️
• A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln — 171 questions (0.51/page) ⚠️
• Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz — 193 questions (0.62/page) ⚠️
• Mexikid by Pedro Martin — 193 questions (0.63/page) ⚠️
• Soar by Joan Bauer — 192 questions (0.65/page) ⚠️
• Tumble by Celia C. Pérez — 251 questions (0.65/page) ⚠️
• Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan — 226 questions (0.73/page)
• Remember My Story by Tonya Bolden — 220 questions (0.91/page)
• Ellen Outside the Lines by A.J. Sass — 303 questions (0.93/page)
• The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers — 242 questions (0.97/page)
• Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede — 204 questions (0.98/page)
• An Occasionally Happy Family by Cliff Burke — 211 questions (0.99/page)
• Tagging Freedom by Rhonda Roumani — 284 questions (1.04/page)
• Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi — 452 questions (1.16/page)
• Uprooted by Albert Marrin — 371 questions (1.30/page)

High School (9-12) — 1,747 questions across 12 books

The high school division needs the most help, averaging only 0.43 questions per page. This is a new division and most books have very limited coverage.

• All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir — 74 questions (0.20/page) ⚠️
• Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang — 98 questions (0.23/page) ⚠️
• Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi — 64 questions (0.27/page) ⚠️
• A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur — 91 questions (0.27/page) ⚠️
• Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim — 113 questions (0.28/page) ⚠️
• The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas — 153 questions (0.38/page) ⚠️
• Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas — 131 questions (0.39/page) ⚠️
• When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez — 162 questions (0.44/page) ⚠️
• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree — 124 questions (0.50/page) ⚠️
• An Appetite for Miracles by Laekan Zea Kemp — 243 questions (0.56/page)
• Promise Boys by Nick Brooks — 222 questions (0.76/page)
• Seven Percent of Ro Devereux by Ellen O'Clover — 272 questions (0.87/page)

Thank You, Contributors

Every question submitted helps another student practice. Whether you contributed one question or one hundred, you've made OBOB.dog better for everyone.

When you practice on OBOB.dog, look for the "OBOB.dog Community" source - those are questions written by readers just like you!

Want to Contribute?

Adding questions is easy. All you need is the book you're reading and a few minutes.

Bonus: Questions with one-word answers are automatically included in our Daily Crossword puzzles, giving your contributions even more reach!

Learn how to contribute questions

Every question counts. Thank you for being part of the OBOB.dog community!

• Beaverton City Library, Elementary (3-5): 495 questions
• Beaverton City Library, Middle (6-8): 218 questions
• Cedar Mill Community Library, Middle (6-8): 100 questions

A huge thank you to the librarians at Beaverton City Library and Cedar Mill Community Library for creating and sharing these questions with the OBOB community.

These questions are now available in all battles, games, and the Daily Crossword. Happy practicing!

Unlike the other games and battles on OBOB.dog, the crossword doesn't let you choose your own books. You'll have to work with your team or friends across all 16 books to solve the puzzle.

How it works

1. New puzzle every day — Each morning there's a fresh crossword for each division that uses content questions from all the books.
2. Play together — Create a team room and invite friends or teammates to solve it together in real-time. You'll see everyone on the screen at once and what they're working on. Only people you invite will join your team's crossword.
3. Live chat — Use the optional built-in voice chat to strategize and chat with your friends in real time while you play (just click the audio icon)

Each clue is a content question from your division's OBOB books. When you fill in the correct answer, the clue gets marked as complete. Work together until you've solved them all!

Collaboration is key 🔑

You might notice that unlike the other battles and games on OBOB.DOG, the crossword doesn't let you select specific books and you must play with all 16. This is by design!

The Daily Crossword is built for teamwork. The puzzle includes questions from every book in your division, which means you'll need to phone a friend for help. Send them your team code / link, and ask them to answer the clues for the books they've read. It's okay to ask for help and collaboration is key!

That's all for now. Go to obob.dog/crossword to give it a try. We'd love to know what you think and how we could make it better. Have more questions, check out the FAQ on the game page.

It uses all the same questions available to solo and friend battles, but follows more of the formal OBOB battle structure:

• Mock battles use all 16 books
• Mock battles are between two teams, and keep track of each team's points automatically
• Mock battles have optional steals! If a team answers a question incorrectly, the other team will have the opportunity to answer and steal their points.

You can also choose a Regular battle or a Mini battle:

• Regular battles are regulation length: 16 total questions, 8 per team
• Mini battles are shorter: 8 total questions, 4 per team. Think of it as a lightning battle ⚡️, short and sweet.

We think mini battles may be useful for running a lot of mock battles with teams at school events under time constraints (like recess).

We are always trying to learn and grow while helping more kids fall in love with reading in the process. Let us know if you use the new battle mode and how it is working for your team!

Start a mock battle by visiting OBOB.dog, selecting your division, and clicking the "Mock battle" button at the bottom of the page. Woof!

And:

It's a small thing, but hopefully will help everyone learn the correct pronunciation as they play. Have a great weekend, and happy OBOBing!

1. Grab the OBOB book you are currently reading.

2. Go to obob.dog/books and find your book based on the year/division. Click the "View questions" button.

3. Navigate to the page you want to add a question for and click the "Add question" button. You'll be presented with a form like this:

4. Select your question type, either Content or In Which Book.

• If you're submitting a Content question, keep the answer short and sweet. One or two words that that can be evaluated objectively - nothing left open to interpretation.
• For In Which Book questions, don't repeat the "In which book" text, we'll handle that for ya.

5. Provide your name and email (or parent's email), so we can let you know when the question is posted.

6. Volunteers will review the questions and add them to the 'dog.

7. Repeat as you read!

That's it! Here's a few more tips to follow:

• Be unique - don't duplicate the content of questions that have already been posted. Look below the form at the list of questions that are already cited for the page.
• Increase coverage - some books don't have many questions, or have large sections without any questions at all. Try adding some questions that increase the coverage in those areas. For example, if a page already has 10 questions, try finding a page with 0 questions and submit some for that page.

Questions contributed from the form will be part of the "OBOB.dog Community" source:

Email obobdotdog@gmail.com if you'd like to contribute questions in bulk, or have other ideas/thoughts to share.

At the peak of the OBOB season there were hundreds of kids doing thousands of battles every day on the 'dog. As the season wound down, we asked what they'd like to see in the future, and the resounding answer: more questions, better questions, harder questions - also, fewer duplicates and grammatical errors. Message received.

With that in mind here's a look at what's new on OBOB.dog for the 2025-2026 season...

New year, new books, questions, and divisions!

Last year we started with a few questions for the Elementary division, and added Middle school towards the end of the season.

Thanks to a group of amazing parent volunteers led by Anna Konsor, we're excited to start the 2025-2026 season with thousands of questions for Elementary, Middle, AND High School! We also have question from Lake Oswego Public Library and Cedar Mills Public Library.

Use the new division picker on the homepage to get started:

Note: if you're feeling nostalgic, we've kept around last year's questions. Just pick your year.

Question feedback

All the questions on OBOB.dog are written by community volunteers, and sometimes typos or other issues fall through the cracks. Heck there's almost seven thousand questions already for this year! If you see an issue, just tap the flag icon and fill out the form to let us know. Rosie will get right on it and attempt to fix the issue, improving the battles for all.

Question stats by book

Are you curious about the questions for your favorite book? Where did they come from, how many are there, how are they distributed throughout the book, etc? Take a look at the new book page that gives you a page-by-page overview of stats and questions:

If you poke around, you'll find that there areas of books with lots of questions and others with very few or even zero. Which brings us to...

Add a question!

That's right, now you can add questions to OBOB.dog and make it better for everyone. From the books page, find the page number you're currently reading, tap the "Add a question" button and then follow the instructions:

You can choose to add a content or in-which-book question, just follow the instructions and guidance on screen. Your new question will appear on OBOB.dog after it is reviewed by a volunteer, and we'll email you once it is up.

That's it for now. We've got some other interesting stuff in the works, so stay tuned and keep reading. Woof!