Game on! The annual Global Book Challenge has its semi-finalists, 10 teams of 4th and 5th grade students from about 45 Seattle Public Schools. These include the Arbor Heights Elementary School's "Orange Lightning Reading Squad," Lafayette's "Awesome Speedy Stinging Readers," and Highland Park's "Nerdy Turtles" are three of ten semi-finalist teems of 4th and 5th graders in the Global Reading Challenge contest.

The ten teams compete Tuesday, 7pm, at the downtown public library to determine the winner. 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. Up to 10 teams within each school participated, the winning team then challenging another school's winning team.

According to its website, the Global Reading Challenge is a cooperative effort between King County Library System and local public school districts. This is a Battle of the Books style program that allows 4th and 5th graders across the county to work together as a team and challenge other schools to correctly answer questions about the selected books. Each year, King County Library System Children's Librarians select 10 titles in a wide range of reading levels especially suited to the interests of young readers.

Arbor Heights "Orange Lightning Reading Squad" include:
Noelle Tyau, Jade Vazquez, William Lawrence, Suad Ibrhim, Andreina Preciado, Emily Richards, Kelsey Hay, with principal, Dr. Carol Coram

Lafayette "Awesome Speedy Stinging Readers include:
Lindy Tongol, Hannah Young, Miles Durnwirth, John Henzler, Alex Nguyen, and Elisa Sun

Highland Park "Nerdy Turtles" names to come. In addition, we will report results of March 23's competition.

The 10 books include:

Archer's Quest by Linda Sue Park, Becoming naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan, Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate, Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, Vive La Paris by Esme Raji Codell, The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John, Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear by Lemsey Namioka, and The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin.