Reading-Record Attempt Is a Serious Page Turner

Expect more boot camp than slumber party this year during Buena Park High School’s attempt to break the world reading record.

Unlike the school’s ill-fated try in 2004 -- when the students’ 72-hour feat was trumped by an Italian team -- there will be no hair-crimping or devouring box upon box of greasy pizza.

Yes, the six team members have CDs to pep them up (Shakira, Eminem and Guns N’ Roses). One has a PlayStation, and another keeps her cellphone close at hand. Good-luck charms -- a wilted flower from a boyfriend, a blue teddy bear and a toy turtle -- are stuffed in backpacks.

But this time, they set some rules, said Barbara Shapiro, a 16-year-old sophomore who watched her sister’s disappointment when they didn’t break the record last year.

You can’t talk on the phone all the time, she said. Family, friends and boyfriends may visit only sparingly. Go easy on the candy and doughnuts.

“Last year, there was too much partying,” she said.

This time, they know better. A five-day oral reading relay requires concentration, an iron will and an abundant supply of water. This time, it’s serious.

“We’re very focused,” said Shapiro, the team’s manager until one girl dropped out at the last minute. She found herself jumping into the action as the first reader in their attempt to break the record of 100 hours, 30 minutes. The stopwatch started just after 1 p.m. Tuesday at Martinez Books and Art Gallery in Santa Ana.

Inspired by Buena Park High School English teacher Ron Carcich’s annual 24-hour relay read, some of his students last year thought they could up that and break the world record.

But they were thwarted.

First, a procedural error eight hours into the 72-hour attempt forced the team to start over. Then one participant dropped out, adding 48 minutes of reading time a day for each girl. One lost her voice, and another took cold medication that made her fall asleep for four hours.

“That’s nothing in the real world, but in a reading marathon, that’s everything,” Carcich said.

And finally, when they’d swigged gallons of coffee and read until their throats were raw, after they had achieved the 72 hours they thought they needed and gone home to sleep, Guinness confirmed a pending record by an Italian team: 75 hours.

That record has since been topped, first by an Australian team, then by students in New York. But this year, Buena Park’s team is even more determined.

“We’ve got to finish what we started,” Shapiro said. “It upset us.”

As Shapiro started reading from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” -- slowly, her voice cracking slightly -- her other teammates milled around the kitchen at the back of the bookstore, picking at a giant burrito and listening to their iPods.

Like last year’s team, this one isn’t made up of all-star readers.

Three of the six aren’t native English speakers. Wendy Alvarez, 16, moved here from Mexico three years ago and just completed Carcich’s remedial reading class. Crystal Ditzler, 17, never really learned to read until sixth grade. After a year in Carcich’s class, she likes reading.

“I get it,” she said.

As she lounged in black sweat pants and watched Shapiro read, the minute hand on the large green clock slowly ticked toward her turn at 2 p.m.

She gulped nervously. “Fifteen minutes,” she said. “I’m scared.”

And there were still at least 99 hours and 45 minutes to go.