Freshman Femy Alam never thought of herself as a reader—until pizza became an incentive to participate in the reading competition for Ms. Pino and Miss Shainline’s Honors English class. Femy read a whopping 620 pages in one month, earning her an individual award: a gift basket. 

The competition was supposed to reward the class that had read the most pages with a pizza party, but due to low participation, only one winner was awarded the prize. For Femy, the thought of free pizza at the beginning of the competition motivated her to participate, even though she had a history of not enjoying reading. 

She started with a simple book about an orca that got separated from its pod off the coast of Seattle and was guided back. The illustrations made it an enjoyable read, but as she grew more comfortable, she moved on to something harder, a book on the philosophy of race. This book opened her eyes to the ways people perceive others and how the systems of society shape those perceptions. She discovered that reading didn’t have to be work, instead it could be a way to understand the world on a deer level. 

Throughout the challenge, Femy realized that she refers to books that offer personal growth instead of entertainment. She hopes that in the years to come, there will be an improvement in the rules. This includes a way to make the competition more equal. She suggests restricting books with fewer words per page and providing a way to check the number of pages recorded to prevent cheating. 

Although Femy initially participated in the pizza competition, she ended up with something of even higher value—a greater understanding and appreciation of reading and learning.