(Tuesday night WSB photos by Patrick Sand)
We went downtown last night for the 20th annual Global Reading Challenge finals, in which West Seattle Elementary‘s Reading Warriors (above) and Lafayette Elementary‘s Rad Radical Hyperactive Jellyfish (below) were among the seven teams that made the cut from around the city.

Even this event was affected by the southbound Highway 99 closure – our area’s teams made it in time, heading northbound, but the start time was postponed so everyone could arrive from the north end. Ahead – scenes from the competition:

The GRC starts earlier in the year with ten books provided to each participating school. (In our area, the other participating schools were Alki, Arbor Heights, Concord, Gatewood, Highland Park, Roxhill, and Sanislo.) Once the teams have made it through school-wide finals and then the semifinals, the quiz-bowl style final is set. And it includes nailbiter moments as well as high-five-type moments:

The end result was a tie between the Lord of the Books team from Orca and Reading Rockets from Leschi, and some of the winners were excited to hear Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim announce they’d get to meet the mayor:

This year’s books are listed on the SPL website.