Winter stories await in the CVHS library challenge series

Did you know that there are reading challenges in the library? This year the library has hosted six reading challenges. Students who participate get invited to exclusive events at the library during lunch time and can earn prizes, Trojan tickets and friends.

“Reading challenges are designed to help students cultivate their joy of reading. At the library we encourage students’ independent reading exploration, one of the ways we do that is through reading challenges,” said Emily Stambaugh, CVHS teacher-librarian.

The most recent challenge, the Genre Roulette, encourages students to read in genres they don’t typically read in. Students pull a slip of paper from the bowl and have to read the genre that comes out.

Aarna Garg, Janli Shankar, Siena Lau and Austin Mooney, all freshmen, are among this year’s winners so far.

The library is looking forward to a series of winter challenges. Students will be able to pick between several. There will be a friends challenge, a movie adaptation challenge, a books in translation challenge, nonfiction challenges and more.

“I hope students will curl up and read over the winter with a hot cup of chocolate and a great book,” she said.

CVHS reading challenges are part of a pilot program, CVUSD Reads! Four schools in the school district are participating, Creekside, Stanton, Proctor and CVHS. Each school runs their own challenge and all four schools have a goal of two million reading minutes. Students log their reading in Beanstack.

It’s hopeful that more students will participate in the reading challenges, and they will grow in popularity over time and inspire new reading.

“It can be really tough in high school to deal with screen addictions and competing demands on their time. I hope we can rekindle students’ personal interests and love of reading by giving them the gift of quiet time to read,” she said.