OWS Bobcats read their way around the world!

In November 2015 I set the Rufus Reads Challenge, inviting our students and staff to read one book set in or written by an author from every continent (Antarctica was optional). Seven months later I am pleased to report that nearly a third of our students took part, reading books from about 50 countries! 

Big congratulations to this 5th grader, the first person in the whole school to complete the challenge! She's even started her own blog of reviews by and for young people! See her list of fantastic fiction books below.

• Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang (China)
• Endangered by Eliot Schrefer (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson (Brazil)
• The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (England)
• Lost by Jacqueline Davies (US)
• The Whale Rider by Witi Tame Ihimaera (New Zealand)
• The Winter Pony by Iain Lawrence (Antarctica)

Special recognition to this Kindergartner, who was the second person to finish and the first in all of the Lower School! She read so much wonderful nonfiction, she's ready to plan quite the holiday!

• The Capstone Press One Nation series: Alabama, California, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas (US)
• I Lost My Tooth in Africa by Penda Diakité (Mali)
• Lost City: The Discovery of Machu Picchu by Ted Lewin (Peru)
• Not For Parents Australia: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know by Janine Scott (Australia)
• Not For Parents Paris: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know by Klay Lamprell (France)
• The Story of Divaali by Jatinder Nath Verma (India)

Ms. Bonning, one of our newest teachers, was the first staff member to read her way around the world! Check out her incredible list of titles...

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A Novel by Dai Sijie (China)
• The Light between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (Australia)
• The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (Netherlands)
• Twenty Love Poems by Pablo Neruda (Chile)
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (US & Antarctica)