On February 6, the National English and Honors Society partnered with Women’s Literature club and The Book Was Better club for Camp Read-A-Lot, an in-school field trip that took place in the library. Participants spent the day independently reading, making bracelets, constructing blanket forts with fairy lights, solving puzzles, and watching movies based on books, such as “Jurassic Park,” “Hunger Games,” and “Holes.”  They were provided with pizza, snacks, hot chocolate, and an assortment of teas.

English teacher and Women’s Literature club sponsor Kirsten Cleary made a “reading thermometer” in order to visually represent the number of pages read as a whole. She and fellow English teacher Stephanie Cichoski had originally planned to put five or six thousand pages on it. However, senior NEHS officer Isabella Martin made the decision of a group 10,000 page reading goal. As a group, students and staff accomplished reading 5,600 pages. 

 “I think we sometimes forget in a school setting that reading is this fun communal experience,” said Cleary. “It was enjoyable to see that.” 

Junior Riya Pradhan, member of The Book Was Better, took advantage of this opportunity in order to engross herself in “Katabasis” by R F Kuang. She was able to read 362 pages despite the two hour delay. 

 “It was a really fun day,” said Pradham. “ You could never get bored. I just got really lucky that I picked out a great book, but there was a bunch for other people to do as well.”

Freshman Mia Lorell Rentas-Comulada enjoyed the book “Tale of the Heart Queen” by Nisha J. Tuli, reading 110 pages, only 20 short of her goal. 

“It was a really fun experience, she said, “and it was really great to meet other people that also have interest in reading.”

“I loved reading a lot,” Cleary said. “That was wonderful, but I also loved seeing the excitement surrounding books and seeing how silly people got making blanket forts and just having a good time together.”

Next year, she hopes to make a blanket fort.