Over spring break, reading competition members participated in the annual Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition at Seton Hill University. The team, guided by Ms. Riebel, read 24 books for the competition. The books caught the eye of a variety of readers with their different genres. To prep, team members took notes, wrote questions on the books they read, and attended after school practices. Juniors Emily Bozelli, Becca Brubaker, and sophomores Sarah Dittmar, Tristian Green, McKenzie Powell, Megan Reyes, Janine Schomer, Claudia Torrillo participate in reading competition. The team was lead by Mary Yeckley, senior. Yeckley kept the team together with sending out reminders, and organizing meetings for extra practice.

“I was very excited to get together with the team and compete,” said Yeckley. On the day of the competition students sat in a circle and were asked questions from the books. The team discussed the question, and then the team captain gave the answer to the proctors.

If the team answered correctly, one point was awarded; if not, then the opposing team could “steal” the question for one fourth of a point. The team won round three, beating Derry 10 to 6. ”I thought we did really well for missing half our team and it was a lot of fun,” said Reyes. Reading competition members can’t wait to participate in National Library Week.

April is a time for reading with National Library Week being April 15-19. The GLSH library is holding a contest to celebrate reading. Every day  a trivia question or a reading-related task will be on the morning announcements. Students who correctly answer the question or complete the task will be entered in a drawing, with a $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble as a prize. Students must submit all responses to the box on the front desk of the library by 2:30 p.m. on Friday to be considered for the prize. Answers may be submitted on any day, but only one answer may be submitted per question.  The questions/tasks are:

Monday: Name one graphic novel that is in GLSH’s library.

Tuesday: Check out one book or magazine that interests you.

Wednesday: Name three books that have been made into movies in the past two years.

Thursday: Name three books located on the green “New Arrivals” cart near the entrance to the library.

Friday: Answer the question,”Why do you think it is important to visit the library?”

Riebel hopes to encourage more students to visit the library, raise awareness of National Library week and to get more students reading.