Twelve Kennett High School students, led by senior captain Andrew Lihou and junior captain Pam Moonthianngam, brought home a blue ribbon from the Chester County Intermediate Unit Reading Olympics in late April. Seven teams participated in the competition at the Intermediate Unit in Downingtown.
Reading Olympics teams received the list of forty-five titles in the fall and had from September to April to read all of the books. Kennett’s team decided to divide the list, and each member read a minimum of four to five books, though some members read nearly all of them. On the day of the competition, teams are asked questions from every book and are awarded one point for each correct answer. To earn the blue ribbon, teams must answer at least fifty questions correctly.
To practice before the event, the teams from Kennett High School and Unionville High School have participated in a scrimmage for the last several years. Students from both teams meet to eat pizza and to create and answer questions from all forty-five books. The practice obviously paid off this year, since both Kennett High School and Unionville High School received the blue ribbon, the competition’s highest distinction.
“The kids always say it’s really fun,” stated Ms. Lisa Teixeira, Kennett High School librarian and Reading Olympics team advisor. “Practicing together fosters a relationship between the two diverse schools. It’s such a positive experience for students who enjoy reading and competing.”
Senior Andrew Lihou added, “I absolutely love reading and Reading Olympics. I feel like there 
is an amazing sense of community. We all need to work together to read the forty-five books and memorize answers. If I were going to be here another year, I’d definitely do it again, and I wish the future teams good luck.”
Kennett’s team also included Emely Camacho, Daniela Carmona, Lily Ehren, James Hanby, Olivia McLaurin, Charlotte Schmitt, Lauren Sugar, Jenny Zavala, and Cindy Zern.
