The Gateway Challenge: read 25 books between August and December to nominate next year’s Gateway award.
Lee Mitchell, head librarian, said there are 25 books on the preliminary list for the 2012-2013 Gateway book list. Mitchell said it is possible to be a reader/selector and recommend the top 15 to the Gateway committee if the 25 preselected books are read by December.
Mitchell is participating in the Gateway Challenge and has read 20 books. Mitchell has two favorites: “Chasing Brooklyn” by Lisa Schroeder and “Bruiser” by Neal Schusterman.
Mitchell said she likes “Bruiser” because Schusterman always has interesting characters and the books have a twist at the end.
“It wouldn’t be my normal genre, but I do like him and how he writes his books,” Mitchell said. “I also like the theme: how far would you be willing to go to sacrifice yourself for other people.”
Robert Eshelman, sophomore, is also attempting this challenge.
So far, Eshelman has read 13 books and said his favorite is “Rot in Ruin” by Jonathan Maberry.
“I liked it because it showed the zombie apocalypse in a different way,” Eshelman said. “The way it’s always shown is that they are murdering brainless creatures, but this book showed a different side that I liked.”
Eshelman said his enjoyment of reading is the reason he decided to attempt the challenge.
“I really like reading,” Eshelman said. “It’s a fun thing to do for me.”
The challenge also has affected Eshleman’s free time. He said recently he has not been reading as much.
“I’ve had a lot of homework this year,” Eshelman said. “But I still try to get a lot of reading in.”
Diane Boschert, family and consumer sciences teacher, is also attempting the Gateway Challenge and said her love for the Gateway books is the reason she is participating. Boschert said her time has been affected by this challenge and she plans on finishing.
“I’m working really hard to finish,” Boschert said. “I’m a real book reader, so normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but I’m taking two college courses so trying to do those and this has been a challenge.”
Boschert said she has completed 15 books and her favorite book was “The Deadly Sister” by
Eliot Schrefer.
“It has such a unique twist to it,” Boschert said. “It left me thinking about it all day. The title is very decieving.”
Mitchell said she has been a reader/selector in the past and she encourages others to participate in the challenge as well.
“I encourage people to participate if they’re readers, because you get to read a bunch of new books from different genres,” Mitchell said. “It broadens your readings and it is good to have student input on the final 15.”
The deadline to complete the challenge is Thursday, Dec. 1.