North Austin School Named Reading Challenge Grand Champion

NORTH AUSTIN, TX — A North Austin school is among the grand prize winners of a national reading challenge, officials said Friday.

Epic!, a leading digital media brand for kids, challenged classrooms across the couy to collectively read 7 million books for its "Spring Into Reading Challenge" from Monday, April 30 to Friday, May 4. Classrooms across the land not only met the challenge but exceeded the goal, reading a total of 7,399,783 books in the five-day challenge, officials said.

Round Rock ISD's Patsy Sommer Elementary, 16200 Avery Ranch Blvd., was one of five participating Texas schools named grand prize winners along with Callison Elementary in Round Rock. The other Texas schools making the cut are: Lucy Mae McDonald Elementary in Ferris; Encinal Elementary in Encinal; and St. John’s School in Houston.

Every elementary school class that read at least 50 books on Epic! during the challenge earned an exclusive Epic! Reading Challenge Certificate to display in their classrooms, according to the event's organizers. The top 20 classes with the most books read also won a class ice cream party, plus six-month home subscriptions to Epic! and an exclusive Epic! swag pack, officials added.

The Spring into Reading Challenge is Epic!’s most ambitious reading contest to date, according to officials. During the winter, Epic! hosted the Blizzard of Books Reading Challenge with more than six million books read in total.

Grand prize winners span the nation and include classrooms in the following schools:

• Spaulding Elementary School, Lamar, SC
• Aurora Elementary School, Aurora, IN
• KIPP Valiant Community Prep, East Palo Alto, CA
• Lucy Mae McDonald Elementary, Ferris, TX
• Arbuckle Elementary School, Arbuckle, CA
• Dieterich Elementary, Dieterich, IL
• Wildomar Elementary, Wildomar, CA
• Guth Elementary School, Perkasie, PA
• Linden Elementary School, Linden, NJ
• Hudsonville Christian School, Hudsonville, MI
• St. Paul Lutheran School, Stover, MO
• Encinal Elementary, Encinal, TX
• Parishville-Hopkinton Central School, Parishville, NY
• Medary Elementary, Brookings, SD
• Sommer Elementary, Austin, TX
• St. John’s School, Houston, TX
• Foley Intermediate School, Foley, AL
• Hinckley Elementary School, Hinckley, MN
• Callison Elementary, Round Rock, TX
• Fairview Elementary, Fairfield, CA

ABOUT EPIC! SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE (provided text): Epic!’s award-winning subscription service provides kids unlimited access to 25,000 curated, high-quality books and videos. Reaching over five million children through its network, Epic! encourages kids to explore their interests and learn in a fun, safe and kid-friendly environment. To support reading and teachers in the classroom, Epic! for Educators is completely free for elementary school teachers and school librarians. Now used in 87% of U.S. elementary schools, teachers use Epic! to support learning across a variety of subjects, from reading and literacy, to history, geography, the arts, science and math.

ABOUT EPIC! (provided text):

Founded in 2014 and based in Redwood City, CA, Epic! is a kids digital media brand for kids 12 and under. Epic!’s award-winning subscription service includes unlimited access to 25,000 books and 2,500 videos from leading publishers such as HarperCollins, Macmillan, National Geographic Kids, Smithsonian Enterprises, and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Kids on Epic! are encouraged to explore their interests and learn in a fun, safe, and engaging environment that includes fiction and non-fiction titles, “read to me” books, learning videos and teacher-created quizzes and reading lists. Epic! is used in 87% of U.S. elementary schools and consistently a top app in the Apple App Store. Epic! was founded by Suren Markosian, founder of several successful technology startups, and Kevin Donahue, former YouTube, Google and Disney executive, with the support of top tier investors and veterans of the children’s publishing industry. To learn more about Epic!, visit http://www.getepic.com, or follow Epic! on Facebook and Twitter.

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