This site will help students and parents learn more about the BEST BOOKS CHALLENGE, sponsored by the Granite School District Elementary Libraries.  It is an extra-curricular program, and all 4th-6th grade students in elementary schools are invited to participate!

This is also the place for librarians, teachers, reading specialists, and other school personnel to find answers to questions and access to sign-up sheets, materials, forms, and other information and resources you may need.

THESE SCHOOLS are signed up to participate this year.  If your school is not listed, but you want to participate on your own, please contact Marci Bishop by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.

PURPOSE:  Best Books rewards readers and asks them to consider books from a variety of times, genres, authors, reading levels, and purposes.  

• Writer Andrea Davis Pinkney said "Kids read for the same reasons that adults read. They want to have fun, laugh, have adventures, escape, meet new characters, and learn more about the world . . .  my focus is to inspire joy, power, and the love of reading."  The focus of this program is to do the same.

• Students will know their school library and librarian.

• Students will make choices about their reading; even with a challenge topic to follow, there are many options which empowers them to read as they choose (a great motivator for encouraging readers). 

• Students learn empathy and compassion by reading about people with different lives; they build understanding and confidence from reading about people who are like them.

• Everyone stays more current with contemporary children's literature, recent prize winners, etc.

• Traditional, time-honored standards aren't lost on the shelves.

• Students have a community of readers--a shared experience and direct interaction as they read together (another motivator for reading for fun).