Pageapalooza is a reading competition for students to earn prizes while reading throughout the month of October. It is run by the NLCC conference librarians as a way to incentivize students to continue reading outside of the classroom.
Information and Learning Director, Barbara Mason, has collaborated with the neighboring schools in the conference for this event; Grant Community High School, Grayslake Central High School, Grayslake North High School, Lakes Community High School, Round Lake High School and Wauconda High School are all participating in Pageapalooza.
“I meet regularly with the NLCC librarians,” Mason said. “We thought it would be a nice big joint effort reading event. We also plan the Battle of the Books together.”
Every week students add up the minutes they read and record them through the Google Form sent to their emails. They must be submitted before that Sunday at midnight. In previous years, the competition was total pages read, however, this year the librarians decided to transition to minutes. They switched in order to include not only books, graphic novels or magazines but audiobooks too. The reading minutes submitted must be recreational reading, not reading for school work.
Senior Michelle Jackson participated in Pageapalooza last year and has joined this year as well. She did not win anything last time, however, she is hopeful for this year.
“I’m doing Pagepalooza again because it motivates me to spend my extra time reading rather than being on my phone or something,” Jackson said. “It’s also cool to be going up against people from other schools in the area.”
Senior Annie Maciejewski also joined Pageapalooza last year and is continuing to participate this year after her previous success.
“I won three books last year which was awesome,” Maciejewski said. “I love participating in Pageaplooza, it’s honestly really fun and I love winning prizes.”
All ACHS participants get entered into a raffle for a $15 Amazon gift card each week. Students also get milestone prizes; pick a free gently used book once they hit 250 minutes, then 500 minutes and lastly 1,000 minutes. In addition, the top three students from all schools that read the most minutes win a gift card to Little Bean Coffee Company or Little Bean Books. The first place winner gets $40, second place gets $30 and third place gets $20.
The competition began on Oct. 2 and will end on Oct. 29. Despite the competition already starting, students can still sign up throughout the month. The sign-up is found at libguides and has also been sent to students’ emails. The sooner students sign up, the more likely they are to win the prizes.
