Queen Anne Elementary Wins Global Reading Challenge
Summary: More than 3,600 4th and 5th graders participated in the program with 11 teams advancing to the City Finals
Queen Anne Elementary Wins Global Reading Challenge
After 60 tense minutes of competition, Queen Anne Elementary’s Library Lynx won the title of 2025 Global Reading Challenge city champion.
Wearing orange headbands and purple T-shirts, the team of seven 4th and 5th graders competed against 10 other teams by answering rounds of reading trivia questions about this year’s Global Reading Challenge books.
The initial competition led to a four-way tie between the Lynx, Genesee Hill’s Book Bandits, Kimball Elementary’s Purple Banana Slugs and Orca K-8’s Intelligent Foxes. The Lynx were the only ones to answer the tie-breaker question correctly, giving them the win.
Seventy-two teams competed in the semifinals with 11moving on to the city finals. The teams making the finals were:
- Broadview-Thomson K-8: Depressing Unicorns
- Cascadia Elementary: mAGnificent Muffins
- Cedar Park Elementary: Sigma Peppa Pigs
- Dunlap Elementary: Willy Wonka
- Genesee Hill Elementary: Book Bandits
- Kimball Elementary: The Purple Banana Slugs
- John Muir Elementary: Legends of Books
- Lafayette Elementary: Confidential
- Orca K-8: The Intelligent Foxes
- Queen Anne Elementary: Library Lynx
- Rising Star Elementary: Silver Hawks
The Global Reading Challenge is a collaboration between The Seattle Public Library and Seattle Public Schools (SPS). It promotes recreational reading at a pivotal elementary school stage when many students — especially boys — start to lose interest in reading.
This school year, more than 3,600 4th and 5th graders in 72 SPS elementary and K-8 schools participated in the program, forming 528 teams.
All children who participate have access to the titles, which are chosen because they are rich, low-barrier books that reflect diverse cultural communities and have strong appeal to all kids. There were eight books this year, and 9,870 books were distributed to schools and community partners. This year’s selection included three graphic novels.
Learn more about the Global Reading Challenge and see photos of the finalist teams.
