Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina Named Top States in The 2015 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ Share this release:http://bit.ly/1M99eEu

This summer, more than 267,000 children from across all 50 states and 28 countriesread 286,611,349 million minutes in the 9 th annual Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. The top five U.S. states with the most summer reading minutes read by children are: Texas (81,347,190 reading minutes), Florida (61,138,858 reading minutes), New York (11,852,419 reading minutes), New Jersey (10,902,902 reading minutes) and North Carolina (9,375,258 reading minutes).

Scholastic also announced today the top 20 schools that read the most minutes will be featured in the 2016 Scholastic Book of World Records and each school will receive a special plaque to commemorate their students' summer reading achievements. In addition, the #1 U.S. elementary school, Jackson Elementary School, McAllen, TX, will receive a visit from bestselling author Michael Northrop (TombQuest series)and the #1 U.S. middle school, Lake Nona Middle School, Orlando, FL, will receive a visit from bestselling author Varian Johnson (The Great Green Heist).

This free, global summer reading program, created by Scholastic and powered by Energizer , encourages children worldwide to "Power Up & Read" and to log the minutes they spend reading in order to unlock 12 original stories written by favoritechildren's authors and earn digital rewards for reading milestones. The program aims to avoid the effects of the "summer slide" the learning losses which can occur when school is not in session.

"Schools really went above and beyond to get their students excited for summer reading ranging from renting highway billboards to hosting week-long read-a-thons to creating a waterpark day at their school," said Maggie McGuire, VP of Scholastic Parents, Kids & Teachers Online. "Thanks to the great motivation from both parents and schools, our participants are now 'reading ready' for the new school year and we are confident that they will continue to discover the power and joy of independent reading all year long."

The Top 20 Schools in the 2015 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge are:

1. Jackson Elementary School, McAllen, TX (21,285,863 minutes read)
2. Doedyns Elementary School, San Juan, TX (18,839,499 minutes read)
3. Boggy Creek Elementary School, Kissimmee, FL (14,844,153 minutes read)
4. Lake Nona Middle School, Orlando, FL (6,526,662 minutes read)
5. Carroll Academy, Houston, TX (4,413,046 minutes read)
6. Newell Elementary School, Allentown, NJ (2,733,841 minutes read)
7. Heritage Elementary School, Greenacres, FL (2,639,339 minutes read)
8. Gray Elementary School, Houston, TX (2,579,278 minutes read)
9. Flora Ridge Elementary School, Kissimmee, FL (2,300,326 minutes read)
10. Williams Intermediate School, Pell City, AL (2,290,953 minutes read)
11. Odom Elementary School, Houston, TX (2,213,840 minutes read)
12. Beacon Cove Intermediate School, Jupiter, FL (2,133,452 minutes read)
13. Ballantyne Elementary School, Charlotte, NC (2,112,954 minutes read)
14. Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy, Metairie, LA (2,074,424 minutes read)
15. Lisa Park Elementary School, Houma, LA (2,034,934 minutes read)
16. George L. Hess Education Complex, Mays Landing, NJ (1,789,298 minutes read)
17. Warm Springs Elementary School, Freemont, CA (1,717,731 minutes read)
18. Hill Intermediate School, Houston, TX (1,716,498 minutes read)
19. Roosevelt Elementary School, McAllen, TX (1,683,033 minutes read)
20. Etowah Elementary School, Etowah, NC (1,682,225 minutes read)

To see the list of the Top 100 schools, visit www.scholastic.com/summer.

Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge highlights:

• 6,229 schools participated in this year's Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge
• 38 schools read more than 1 million minutes and 432 schools each read at least 100,000 minutes.
• Four U.S. Governorsand44 Gubernatorial Spousespledged to help spread across the nation the important message about children reading over the summer by signing on asReading Ambassadors. Scholastic donated 500 books tothe school of each Reading Ambassador's choice (for a total of 23,000 books), and many of the Ambassadors are hosting reading events in their respective states.
• The 2016 Scholastic Book of World Records will be available this fall through Scholastic Reading Club, Scholastic Book Fairs and bookstores nationwide.

For more information about Scholastic (SCHL) and the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, please visit mediaroom.scholastic.com/SummerReadingChallenge.

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SOURCE Scholastic Inc.

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