For the Record, Books Inspire Them

Sixty hours into a reading marathon at Buena Park High School, the campus auditorium looks more like a slumber party than a place of learning: sleeping bags, empty Coke bottles, fast-food remnants, girls in fuzzy slippers applying mascara and flat-ironing their hair.

Jessica Macias’ tired, strained voice can be heard from the back of the room, reading “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” A cup of herbal tea with honey is at her side; throat lozenges and mints are piled on the desk.

This is how to survive a reading marathon that began Thursday and was scheduled to end early this morning -- only after students in teacher Ron Carcich’s class had read continuously aloud for 72 hours in an attempt to shatter the 53-hour record held by students in Italy. They will actually have read for 81 hours; because of a procedural error at the beginning, they had to start over in the early hours of Friday.

“If you go to most schools, reading is for nerds and for geeks,” said junior Cassie Shapiro, 16. “But for us at this school, people want to be a part of it.”

Carcich’s “Read Around the Clock” challenge has become such an inspiration to students that Shapiro said it’s the reason she hasn’t been expelled.

“At the beginning of the year, I was going to get kicked out of school because of attendance,” she said. A lecture from Carcich snapped her out of it.

“He said, ‘You need to get your grades up. You’re not going to get anywhere without a high school diploma, and you need a college education.’ ”

Before long, she was hooked.

The literacy event, Carcich said, was not designed to improve reading, but to inspire.

For the last three years, Carcich’s students -- students who read from three to seven years below grade level -- have participated in a 24-hour reading marathon. This year, about 100 students read for 24 hours beginning Thursday. Concurrently, five girls are reading for 72 hours straight. Every minute is being videotaped and will be sent to Guinness World Records for confirmation.

“You set a bar, kids will reach it,” Carcich said. “We somehow twisted this negative -- reading and schoolwork -- into it’s now the thing to do. Kids who I didn’t know were going to the principal and asking, ‘Is that guy going to do that reading thing?’ They wanted it.”

Senior Vicky Vazquez, 17, has read three years in a row. “It’s just something different; it’s something unique,” she said.

While the girls read in shifts, catching occasional two-hour naps in between, well-wishers filtered in and out. Some came bearing infusions of Starbucks or pizza. Others brought DVDs and video games.

Teacher Jim Foreman set up a live Web stream so relatives and friends could view the marathon from afar, or so parents could keep tabs on their children.

Clorissa Sanders said taking part in the reading marathon has improved her skills and her attitude. “I did not like to read before,” Sanders said. “It’s a lot easier now.”

By this morning, the 15-year-old will have logged more than 16 hours of reading time.

The stack of finished books is their evidence. Among them: “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” “Tuesdays With Morrie” and “Lost Light,” the latest Michael Connelly suspense novel.

The minutes are ticking by. The students long for a shower. The industrial-size wet wipes and shampooing in the cold sink are getting old. “All I’ve been dreaming about is a hot shower,” said Eliana Linares, 17.

“I could sleep in a warm bath,” agreed Sanders, looking over at the attendance clerk, one of many staff members there for moral support. “If [my teacher] sends me to the office for falling asleep in class, you’ll know why.”