For 'Rebellious Readers,' it's not just about the prize

Valley High School's “Rebellious Readers” enjoy reading and are proud of it.

“We're kind of nerdy, but it's a good thing,” said junior Brittany Dilliott of Arnold, who read 22 of the 30 extracurricular books featured in the Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition.

The team — whose motto was “I read past my bedtime” — won the annual competition this spring at Seton Hill University in Greensburg.

The event, founded more than a decade ago by Greensburg Salem Middle School's then-librarian Nancy Martz, brings together teams of students from most Westmoreland County high schools and some neighboring counties to answer questions about selected books. There is a separate competition for middle school students.

“It's a great way to celebrate the fact that kids still love to read,” said Carrie Vottero, a Greensburg Salem High School librarian who organizes the annual competition with Debbie Kozuch, a librarian at Greensburg Salem Middle School.

“Between the two days (of competition), there are about 1,000 kids. That's a lot of kids that are excited about reading,” Vottero said. “As soon as we're done with the day, they're saying they can't wait to get the (reading) list for next year.”

The lists — 40 books for middle-schoolers, 30 books for high-schoolers — feature a mix of fiction and non-fiction, classics and pop culture, adult and young adult.

Next year's high school list includes the memoirs “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom and “I am Malala” by Malala Yousafzai; post-apocalyptic tales in Rick Yancey's “The 5th Wave” and Joelle Charbonneau's “The Testing”; and “Into the Wild,” Jon Krakauer's true adventure tale that was turned into a movie.

“I'm kind of jealous, because they have a lot on there for next year,” said senior Aeron Pennington of New Kensington.

Voluntary effort

Jim Edgerton, a Valley High School librarian who sponsors the team, said the school has participated in every annual competition except one since 2002.

They have consistently done well, but this was their first victory.

Through four rounds of competition, the teams are asked to answer comprehension-based questions about the books. Wrong answers give opposing teams a chance to “steal” points.

Edgerton said the Valley team missed only two questions out of 60. Because they picked up points on other teams' missed questions, the Valley team finished with a perfect score.

Edgerton credited the students' dedication to meeting after school every week since fall to quiz each other on the books.

Participation in the team is not required for any class; it's purely voluntary.

“I might help a little, seeing what books need to be read or what books they might be weak in,” he said. “But they pretty much do everything. I just make sure the bus (to the competition) gets ordered and they have money for lunch.”

Everyone on the 11-member Valley High team read at least five of the 30 books this year, and each book was read by at least three team members.

“I usually read all the books on the list, but this year I had to slow down,” Pennington said.

But even her “reduced” load — of 20 books — is impressive considering the Pew Research Center surveyed a group of 16- and 17-year-olds in 2012 and found they had read an average of 12 books in a year. The survey did not distinguish between books read for school and those read for pleasure.

Pennington and Katelin Omecinski, the team's captain, both named “The Compound,” a post-apocalyptic novel by S.A. Bodeen, as one of their favorite books from this year's competition.

“When I saw it on the list, I had a bit of a geek-out,” said Omecinski of New Kensington.

She said she prefers dystopian, post-apocalyptic books: “It really brings out the strength in people because they have to deal with things that everyday people don't have to deal with.”

Pennington said she also enjoyed the nonfiction book “Bomb: The Race to Build — and Steal — the World's Most Dangerous Weapon” by Steve Sheinkin.

“I love history,” she said. “It was the perfect book for me. It was fascinating and one of my favorite time periods.”

Dilliott named “Code Name Verity” by Elizabeth Wein as her favorite.

“I really liked it because it was a spy novel involving two women who were pilots during World War II,” she said.

Dilliott said she was selected to be the team's captain for next school year: “I hope to keep the first-place record going.”

Omecinski said she was pleased to bring home a win during her senior year: “It meant a lot to me. I was really positive going in. I thought, ‘This is our year.' ”

“Sure, it's really, really nice to win the prize,” Pennington said, “but it's worth it to read the books.”

Liz Hayes is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-226-4680 or lhayes@tribweb.com.