Winners pictured from left are Dr. Dolittle Ivan Lentz, Riley Chasteen for her version of Bake A Wish, Jacob Moore who read Timothy of the Cay and Jordan Lawley who took on Only the Good Spy Young

Characters were displayed throughout Leeds Middle School’s “lunch-o-torium” (their lunchroom/auditorium) at the inaugural LMS Fifth Grade Character Reading Fair.

Harry Potter himself, in various forms, could be seen along with Dr. Dolittle, Liberty Porter and George Calder who survived the sinking of the Titanic just to name a few.

Fifth grader Jordan Lawley was inspired by Ally Carter’s book “Only the Good Spy Young.”

In her presentation she outlined the main characters, relayed her point of view and delivered her book review.

Riley Chasteen who loves to bake read Lorna Honeywell’s “Bake A Wish” book.

“My favorite part was when they help Archie get the grumps away,” Riley said.

Allowing these fifth graders three weeks to work on developing their characters, each student was given the option of choosing which book they wanted to represent.

Morgan Schall in Mrs. Brittney Hallmark’s class chose “The Last Olympian” because of her personal interest in Greek mythology.

“This is the last book in the Percy Jackson series,” Schall said. “It’s really funny, adventurous and there’s a lot of drama in it.”

Omar Conley chose “I Am A Seal Team Six Warrior.” He said it was a really good book because it was about a man’s life who served our country.

His friend chose “Sunrise Over Fallujah” by Walter Dean Myers because it shows you don’t have to be enemies.

Baseball enthusiast Luke Hyche read “Hothead” by Cal Ripken Jr. about an explosive tempered player named Connor Sullivan who has to clean his act up or strike out by suffering the consequences.

A significant project for fifth grade, these students received eight grades for their Reading Fair work.

Students were graded on summary, book review, creating a plot map (which documents the events that occurred throughout the book), index cards, connections to the book, making a poster, dress/costume emulating the character and oral summary delivered before classmates.

Students from each teacher’s class were chosen as the top three winners. These students won homework passes and M&M’s as prizes.

Winners from Mrs. Hallmark’s class were Natalie Johnson who took third place, second Lexie Walker and first was a tie between Priscilla Moyana and Joseph Whitcomb.

In Miss Dunham’s class there was a tie between Jacob Moore and Jordan Lawley for third place, second went to Riley Chasteen and first place went to Dr. Dolittle himself, Ivan Lentz.

Inspired by the effort and hard work the entire fifth grade class put into the Character Reading Fair both reading and language teachers, Brittney Dunham and Brittney Hallmark were pleased with their students’ accomplishments.

“These students really hit it out of the park,” said Hallmark. “I am so impressed.”