Liberty Park Elementary School Sets Reading Record in Scholastic Summer Challenge

Students at Liberty Park Elementary School have helped to set a new world reading record as one of the Top 20 schools in the world whose students read the most minutes in the annual Summer Challenge.   Students at the Greenacres school read and logged a total of 849,183 and finished #16 worldwide and #2 in Florida to help set a new world record of 95,859,491 minutes read by students in 20 schools.  

The free program encourages children to read books and log their minutes as they read for the world record during the summer to help avoid the ‘Summer Slide,’– the loss of reading skills during summer vacation.   This year, 4,446 schools representing 32 countries participated. The school has earned a listing in the 2013 Scholastic Book of World Records, which will be available through Scholastic Book Clubs, Scholastic Book Fairs, book stores nationwide and as an ebook on Storia™  this winter. Liberty Park Elementary will host a McDonald’s fundraiser in honor of this victory in the near future.

“We congratulate all the students who helped set a new Scholastic world record for summer reading,” said Francie Alexander, chief academic officer at Scholastic. “It is crucial for kids to read during the summer so they don’t lose any of the academic skills they gained throughout the school year.  We are so impressed by how many minutes the children read for. This summer, every child was a winner.”

Visit www.scholastic.com/summer to learn more about the Scholastic Summer Challenge. For more details about Liberty Park’s win, contact Michaelina Oliva, 561.804.3400 or email Michaelina.Oliva@palmbeachschools.org.