WWE Taps Teen Readers In Wrestlemania Tix Contest

World Wrestling Entertainment is sponsoring its second annual teen reading contest with tickets to Wrestlemania 24 as the payoff.

WWE’s return match for its Wrestlemania Reading Challenge coincides with Teen Read Week, which ends Saturday. Students in grades 7-12 who are enrolled in school and are members of libraries participating in the promotion are eligible to enter.

Each student must read a combination of 10 books and magazines and pen a short essay by Jan. 17 on the theme, “Why Wrestlemania Got Me Reading.” Local libraries will select the best essays submitted by 7th and 8^th graders, and by high school students. There are 1,200 libraries participating this year.

From those essays, a panel of judges from the Young Adult Library Services Association will select 10 finalists, who will be required to read one more book to compete in the finals and be named Wrestlemania 24 National Reading Champion in Orlando, FL, on March 30.

The 10 finalists get to attend the annual pro wrestling event (accompanied by an adult in the case of minors). Their local libraries each get a $2,000 donation from the WWE.

More than 1,000 students from 490 libraries wrote essays last year.

Official rules of the contest are posted online a http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa