Milton Public Library hosts a life size naval combat board game to honor the Milton Reads book choice

MILTON – Residents of Milton enjoyed blowing up imaginary enemy ships in a board-game homage to “Dead Wake,” the Erik Larson book chosen for this year’s Milton Reads program. On Saturday, the Milton Public Library hosted a giant-size Battleship competition in its basement. The classic naval combat game was picked because “Dead Wake” is about the German sinking of the British ocean liner the Lusitania in 1915, during World War I.

Library patrons chose “Dead Wake” over three other books for the 2016 version of Milton Reads.

“Every year the community does a program called Milton Reads, where as many people in town read the same book as possible,” said Sara Truog, the library’s children’s librarian. “In thinking what we could do that tied into that particular title, playing Battleship was what we came up with.”

About 20 residents signed up to play throughout the day. Gym mats and art gallery divider panels were used to create the makeshift Battleship game board. Red (hit) and white (miss) square pieces of paper were used in the scorekeeping.

“I worked with whatever I could find,” Truog said. “I like that they’re really tall so that the players can’t see over.”

Paul Muller and son Alex came out to play after receiving an email from the library advertising the event. Although the Mullers lost, they enjoyed being able to play an old-favorite game on their feet.

“It was really fun,” Alex Muller said. “We only needed two more hits (to win).”

The Mullers had lost a 30-minute match to Katheryn Prather, 11, and her sister Amara, 8, of Milton. The sisters recently received Battleship as a gift and rode their bikes to the library to try the giant-size version.

“It’s fun,” Katheryn Prather said. “It’s different. It’s more exciting when it’s bigger.”