• @NineMileTower@lemmy.world
    137•4 months ago

    Those kids are at MOST in 3rd grade.

    Here are the approximate word counts for each book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling:

    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: ~77,000 words
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: ~85,000 words
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: ~107,000 words
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: ~190,000 words
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: ~257,000 words
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: ~168,000 words
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: ~198,000 words

    In total, the series contains around 1,082,000 words across all seven books.

    They would have had to read the entire Harry Potter series. They would have read “War and Peace” twice. They would have read about 80 Capt. Underpants books. They would have had to read about 50 Goosebumps books. A book for a 3rd grader typically consists of about 20,000 words, so in 10.5 months (school year) they would have to read almost 5 chapter books a month. Impressive at that age.

    • @Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
      46•4 months ago

      It’s definitely an achievement but like all millionaires there’s some “cheating” going on: a lot of those words are repeats! Open any book at random and count how many "the"s there are on the two pages!

      ;-)

      (By the way, if you have a pre-reading toddler, reading a storybook aloud with your finger under the words and stopping to let them read all the "the"s is an empowering way to start.)

    • ggppjjEnglish
      12•4 months ago

      I was an avid reader as a kid, and took the Accelerated Reader tests almost religiously.

      I switched school systems one year and jammed out all the tests I could remember.

      Got an award at the end of the year. A neat little blue engraved plaque. Not sure where it ended up.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️English
      8•4 months ago

      50 Goosebumps doesn’t actually seem that much when I look at my bookshelf and see all the Goosebumps books I had. That’s about how many would come out in a single school year!

    • @lightnsfw@reddthat.com
      7•4 months ago

      I was clearing 3 Goosebumps books a week at that age (Until I ran through them all and switched to the Redwall series). I didn’t have the internet back then though and had to share the TV and game consoles with my brother so there were less distractions. Good job to the kids.

    • @Etterra@lemmy.world
      12•4 months ago

      You didn’t get dragged around to church as a kid obviously lol. Although I’ve come to understand that jeans and a button-down are currently considered fine, which well I have a chip on my shoulder against organized religion (although with therapy at least it’s a small one) I am firmly against formal wear because I believe it only exists to reinforce the class divide.

      Nevertheless, these are little kids, and they made them feel special for accomplishing something impressive in an educational context. So for that I will simply say good job education system, you actually got this one right.

      Also that tall one on the right looks like he’s doing a Samuel L. Jackson impersonation and nailing it.

    • @ripcord@lemmy.world
      8•4 months ago

      Hey, in the 1940s, every man/boy had a suit. And a hat. And they wore it all the time. For everything. Even mowing the lawn!

  • @Akasazh@feddit.nl
    21•4 months ago

    What a great idea. Wealth like this should be celebrated more often. Fuck monetary wealth, let’s start celebrating reading, creating and learning again!

  • @slacktoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
    9•4 months ago

    Literacy is important and anything to get kids to read (at or above their level) is amazing!