I don't know much about professional wrestling. Most of what I do understand is only a result of whatever holdover remains from growing up in the Hulk Hogan era in the mid eighties when all the kids at school watched the cartoons and the matches and had lunchtime battles with Iron Sheik and Andre the Giant action figures. And then I picked up a little bit over the course of teaching ninth grade, when a student here or there would booktalk a biography of a pro wrestler. And then when I was in India, I was inevitably asked by kids and adults who my favorite professional wrestler was. It was so popular at the time that people always looked at me a little funny when I confessed I didn't watch it.
So I learned a lot this weekend. But my most significant takeaway? The WWE is way into reading.
I realize that in the last post I probably should have given a bit more information about the
Wrestlemania Reading Challenge. Students from across the country first read ten books on their own, kept a reading log, and then created bookmarks as contest entries. The bookmarks were judged by staff at YALSA and WWE. Five finalists in middle school and high school were selected. These finalists then had to read either SOCCER CHICK RULES (middle school) or SHIFT (high school). And that's how they ended up here:
Saturday, I served as the judge for the finals, in which the teens answered trivia questions about the books. They were all amazing competitors, but sadly, there could be only two champions.
Congratulations to Christian and Stephanie, both of Houston--who won in their respective divisions. You can see them above holding their trophies. And below, you can see why Christian, a tenth grader, was so successful. He put a serious post-it note headlock on SHIFT during his five (!) readings of the book. For all his hard work, he earned ringside seats at Wrestlemania.
There were wrestling superstars on hand to hang out with the kids and run the competition . . .
And other superstars, like WWE CEO Linda McMahon (center) and YALSA Executive Director Beth Yoke (left), co-creators of the Wrestlemania Reading Challenge.
It was a great weekend, and I can't say enough about how dedicated WWE is to reading and literacy. All in all, they brought 20 champions of varying levels (including five from the UK!) to Houston, and gave them all tickets to Sunday's big event. But more than that, they reached out to kids--many of whom didn't really define themselves previously as successful readers. Most of the kids I talked to said that before the challenge, they were very reluctant readers. But now, with this experience behind them, they're fans of both wrestling and reading. And that's pretty wonderful indeed.
I also got a chance to hang with my old college friend Beth. She might be the funniest storyteller I know. Here she is checking out the crazy noise cancelling chairs in Houston Public Library's gaming area of the teen section.
And here we are with our new friend Jimmy "The Mouth of the South" Hart. Most of the weekend involved me asking the kids who a wrestler was, and whether or not he or she was a good guy or bad guy. But I remember Jimmy Hart from the 80's--way back when my sisters and I watched the Saturday morning cartoons!
Thanks to YALSA and WWE for inviting me down. If you want to see more pictures, go
here.
