So how do you get more than 100 middle school students to show up for school an hour early on a Friday? It’s simple: Get them excited about reading.

This morning, bands of bookworms settled into the media center at Rolland-Warner for the first Young Adult Cafe Book Talk of the school year. They were treated to some donuts and milk before one of the school’s teachers, Mrs. Campbell, gave a presentation on a popular science fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins. In this talk Mrs. Campbell, dressed as one of the first book’s (The Hunger Games) larger-than-life characters, talked to the students about its plot, genre classification and gave background information on some of the characters.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she had a discussion with the students about how books, even those in the fantasy genre, can provide commentary on the past, present and future of our society.

The names of four lucky students, pictured above, were drawn out of a hat and each won a copy of The Hunger Games — two of the four just happened to be siblings.

Kudos to everyone involved in this great event. As it continues to grow, more young people will be inspired to read, write and dive in to learning.

Check out photos from the event here.

Also, you can watch the full presentation: