Bookmans was proud to present the winner of our 2010 Bookmans' Reading Challenge, Academy Adventures Primary School, with $15,000 on Thursday, April 22! This school pushed itself to the limit in March to emerge triumphant. At the end of the three-month challenge, the hardworking students at Academy Adventures had read an astounding average of 329 books per student – that’s more than three books per day! Congratulations to the students and staff at Academy Adventures on a job very well done.

Starting January 6, 2010, Bookmans challenged more than 36,000 Arizona kindergarten through fifth grade students in 75 public elementary schools (including charter schools), to read as many books as possible by March 31, 2010. When the challenge ended, participating students all across Arizona had read over 1,063,380 books.

 

Academy Adventures Primary School won the challenge by having the highest average number of books read per student. Their students read 27,607 books during January, February, and March – an average of 329 books per student.

“It was thrilling to see the excitement in student's faces as they read more books and found their reading fluency skills increase!” said Mindy Griffith, the director at Academy Adventures. “It was an amazing experience for all of us and the additional funding will be great, but the student response, interest and academic excellence is even more rewarding.”

 

Bob Oldfather, president and owner of Bookmans, presented the check to Mindy Griffith, much to the delight of the kids and teachers alike. Though the prize is $15,000, the real prize is that the students increased their reading skills and hopefully gained a lifelong love of reading! We're looking forward to next year's challenge -- thank you to everyone who made this year's challenge a wonderful success! You can see all of the pictures from Academy Adventures Primary School on our Flickr page.