Last week, students from Adams Elementary won the city finals of The Global Reading Challenge, Seattle Public Library's Battle of the Books program for 4th and 5th graders.

The program encourages children to have fun and enjoy the sport of reading. After reading 10 books, children take part in a "Quiz Bowl" game to determine the winner for the city of Seattle. Modeled after a former weekly Chicago radio show, the competition tests children's knowledge of the books with questions about characters, plots and settings.

According to Global Reading Challenge rules, questions are read and repeated once. Teams have 30 seconds to write down the answer to a question. The winning Seattle team takes home the Global Reading Challenge traveling trophy and goes on to a videoconference challenge between Seattle and Fraser Valley and Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

This is the first time Adams has won the finals, and together with Alki Elementary, will compete against a Canadian team in a video conference on April 13.  

Loyal Heights elementary was also in the finals this year, which was a first.

Over 300 teams from 45 schools competed in the competition this year, and only ten teams advanced to the finals.

The readers were coached by student coaches and guided by Margaret Paulk, 5th grade teacher at Adams.

"Margaret won't admit this, but she's a dedicated, inspirational teacher who empowers her students. For several years she has put a lot of energy into this competition.  This is her first, well-deserved city win," commented parent Alison Krupnick. "We're proud of our kids and their mentors, proud of our school and proud that the Seattle Public Library fosters student reading.  The Ballard Branch of the library has been particularly supportive of Adams and we thank them."