It’s been another exciting year for Breakout of a Book Night! We hit a new record for total students signing up! We had a 30 percent jump in 4th and 5th grade enrollment between this year and last year. I find these numbers very encouraging because most of the students in this age group have participated before and wanted to repeat the experience.

In the K/1 competition Sophia Pasinello got first place, Ryder Partridge took second, and Katharine Garner & Paisley Murphy finished third. They all were first time winners. Madelyn Bonesteel, Ivy Kennedy, and Declan Dunham won hand mazes in the prize raffle.

The 2/3 bracket also had all first winners. Caraline Webster, Khalani Gonzalez-Caban, and Ava von Schilgen placed first, second and third respectively. The 2nd/3rd grade raffle winners were Caellum Etman, Lillian Demers, Madeline Clark, and Keegan Dunham. They received puzzle boxes in addition to their souvenir photos and bookmarks.

Greyson Sorbello took first place in the 4/5 group. This was his second win, his first being in the 2/3 2021 competition. Alyssa JaGrosse and Danielle Garner took second place. Jocelyn Webster took third. This is her second time placing, having secured second in last year’s contest. The Puzzle box winners for this competition were Haleigh Southard, Seth Holmes, Peyton Bink, and Quinnrose Hastings.

I’ve been working in this school for eight years and the BES community has never failed to amaze me. I could never run this contest without its support. I’d like to thank the PTO for providing the prizes, the teachers of BES for promoting the contest in their classrooms, Rachel Turetsky for advertising on social media, and Matthew Turetsky for co-hosting with me this year. I’d also like to give a special shout out to Greyson Sorbello, Braydon Griswold, and Demi Kormos, my 5th grade voice actors who performed the breakout character introductions. – Puzzle Master and BES Librarian Ms. Mitchell