WrestleMania Reading Challenge

WrestleMania Reading Challenge Champions named!

Congratulations to Ajoura Gwinn, Munhall, Pa., and David Silva, Orland, Fla., for winning the 2008 WrestleMania Reading Challenge!

Ten finalists chosen for the 2008 WrestleMania Reading Challenge. See who's going to Orlando to compete!

Get the word out! Download and customize this sample press release and send to your local newspaper, radio station, or TV station!

WrestleMania Screensaver Thumbnail Encourage your teens to participate with the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Screensaver! Download the 2007-2008 WrestleMania Reading Challenge Screensaver (JPG, 1024x768) Click on the link, then right-click the image and save it to your hard drive.

Find programming ideas, reading logs, certificates, and more in the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Toolkit! (PDF; Adobe Acrobat required.)

Reading Log Prizes

All WrestleMania Reading Challenge participants received a packet of large and small posters for use in promoting the challenge and for rewarding students who completed their reading logs. Run out of small posters to give out as prizes? Download a PDF of the small poster and print your own to give to students who completed the log.

About the Challenge

The WrestleMania Reading Challenge, sponsored by YALSA with support from World Wrestling Entertainment, is a program designed to encourage teens in grades 7-12 to not only continue their reading beyond Teen Read Week, but to earn a reward for doing so by offering chance to win prizes donated by WWE.

Teen participants can win a trip for two to WrestleMania 24! Every teen who turns in a reading log at the end of the challenge will win a prize from WWE; for grand prize eligibility, teens must also submit an essay on the topic "Why WrestleMania Got Me Reading." Librarians who registered can win $2,000 for their libraries.

About WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. was founded by Vincent and Linda McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) has been involved in the sports entertainment business for more than 20 years and is one of the most popular forms of global entertainment today. WWE is an integrated media and entertainment company, principally engaged in the development, production and marketing of television programming, pay-per-view programming and live events, and the licensing and sale of branded consumer products featuring our highly successful World Wrestling Entertainment brand. WWE is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Toronto.

Registration

Registration is now closed. The reading challenge is set to start during Teen Read Week, October 14–20, 2007. Participants must read 10 books, novels, or magazines by January 14, 2008. WrestleMania 24 is March 30, 2008 in Orlando, Florida.

Contest Details

The goal of this program is to reach reluctant readers and get more teens reading beyond Teen Read Week by implementing a reading incentive program that provides prizes from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a reward. Here is some basic information:

The program will be implemented Oct. 14 through Jan. 14th; registration is now closed. All libraries who registered by July 31, 2007, will receive a free promotional poster from WWE to hang in their library.
The program is for teens in grades 7-12.
All teens will be challenged to read 10 items in their free time between Oct. 14th and Jan. 14th and keep a log of what they read.
There are two levels of teen participation:
- Teens can read 10 items and keep a log. When they submit the log, they get a prize.
- Teens can read 10 items, keep a log, and write an essay. Essay winners at the local level get a prize. Ten regional essay winners (five from the middle school level and 5 from high school) will win $2,000 for their library, a trip to Orlando to see WrestleMania 24, and the chance to compete to be the WrestleMania Reading Challenge National Champion.
Each library will judge their essays and pick one winner from each grade category to advance to the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Regionals. Each of your two winners will receive a t-shirt and a DVD from WWE. The winning entries are sent to YALSA no later than January 31, 2008. From all the local winners YALSA will choose ten finalists, two each from 5 regions of the country (one from each grade category).
To participate at the National Championship level, the five qualified teens in grades 7-8 are required to read Stuck in Neutral, by Terry Trueman, and the five qualified teens in grades 9-12 are required to read Ball Don’t Lie by Matt De La Pena.
In Orlando, the ten national finalists will compete for the National Reading Challenge Title and a ring-side seat at WrestleMania. The middle school competition centers around questions from Stuck in Neutral. The high school competition is comprised of questions from Ball Don’t Lie.
This event is sponsored by WWE and YALSA

Official Rules

Please download the official rules (.pdf file) for complete details.

Further Resources

To learn more, you can also visit WWE's WrestleMania Reading Challenge Web page.

Need a copy of this information? Download the WrestleMania Reading Challenge 2008 Fact Sheet (.pdf file). Adobe Acrobat required.

Need inspiration? Find out everything you need to in the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Toolkit!

Questions? Email yalsa@ala.org or call 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4390.