St. Olaf students excel in the Scholastic Book Fair

Intermountain Catholic

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Utah Jazz shooting guard answers questions from St. Olaf students.IC photo by Chris Young

BOUNTIFUL — St. Olaf Elementary and Middle Schools, Bountiful, placed sixth in the "Be A Team Player – Read" contest sponsored by Scholastic Book Fairs, the Utah Jazz, and Russell’s Ice Cream.

St. Olaf students read a total of 269,241 minutes. They placed in the top 12 and qualified to have Utah Jazz shooting guard and small forward Devon Brown come to the school to read to them.

Each student received an autographed photo of Brown and some Russell’s ice cream. The school also received two basketballs autographed by Utah Jazz players to be auctioned off a the annual St. Olaf school benefit auction. Brown also autographed two books to be given to St. Olaf School.

There were 76 schools entered in the competition. St. Olaf has 187 students enrolled, with schools in first through fifth place having from 372 to 1,269 students. The competition began Feb. 13 and ended March 13. Each week throughout the competition, a party was given for the class with the top percentage of reading participation. The students only counted those minutes they read after school. If a student was home sick during a regular school day and chose to read, those minutes did not count.

To help the students accumulate minutes, parents and grandparents would come in after school and read with the students. The minutes were tallied each week, and students were rewarded for meeting their reading goals.

The books Brown read to the students were "Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies," and "If You Give a Pig a Party." Students were then allowed to ask Brown questions.

Brown congratulated the students on all the books they read and the incredible amount of minutes they read.

Brown said he was born at Hill Air Force Base in Layton, and started playing basketball when he was 3 years old. His birthday is Dec. 30, and he is six feet five inches tall. His favorite sport is basketball, but he also enjoys playing a lot of golf. Brown also played for the San Antonio Spurs.

A student asked him what book he is presently reading and his answer was Bill Clinton’s book. He also said he has two cats, his favorite color is silver, and his favorite subject in school was English. If he did not play basketball, he would like be a professional golfer, a school teacher, or fire fighter.

When Brown was in the sixth grade he concentrated on making lay-ups. In the seventh grade he was five feet nine inches tall, and made his first dunk. During the 2003-2004 NBA season, he made 17 dunks in a row, and has made nine so far this year. He made a winning shot in game four of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Brown encouraged the students to do their very best, and continue reading.