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Challenge
Some students spell s-u-c-c-e-s-s; others define it.

Webkinz
Quizmaster Al Roker, Kathleen Bordelon
of Reader's Digest, and Jason English of
Kellogg's congratulate Matthew Evans
on winning the 2007 Reader's Digest
National Word Power Challenge.
T
welve-year-old Matthew Evans has a way with words. His favorite is bewussteinslage, he tells Weekly Reader, "because it's so strange to say." It means "a state of awareness." He's now quite fond of the word hegira too. It means "a journey to a better place"–and his ability to define it led him to victory in Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge.

This was the fifth annual Word Power Challenge, and it attracted more than 2 million students. The contest goes beyond spelling. To win, middle school students must show that they understand the meaning of words. Earlier this month, 52 state winners arrived in Orlando, Fla., to compete for the national title and a $25,000 scholarship from Reader's Digest.

The finalists came from all over the country, but they all have one thing in common: They are avid readers. Each state champion reads about 100 books a year and spends an average of 15 hours a week reading, compared to just four hours watching television and eight hours at the computer. Matthew, who is homeschooled in Albuquerque, N.M., has been reading since the age of three.

To prepare for the contest Matthew memorized word definitions, although he notes that "lots of these words aren't in the [regular] dictionary." He also studies Latin and Greek, because many English words originally came from those two languages. For the Word Power Challenge, he says, "one of my main resources was Reader's Digest Word Power column. I thought those would be good to study."
   planet
Think About It!
 
When spelling bee contestants are stumped, they ask for the definition of the word. How might knowing the meaning of a word help a person spell it?


The competition was fierce. Matthew and second-place winner, Hannah Brown, a seventh-grader from Spartanburg, S.C., were neck and neck for a long time in the final round. In the end, Matthew had the last word.

"The best word to describe this champion's command of the English language is staggering," said Kathleen Bordelon, executive director of the Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge.

Who Will Bee the Best?

Word Power winners already know the meaning of success. Now the pressure is on to see who can spell success. There's lots of buzz about the upcoming 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee finals. Matthew, who says he's been hooked on spelling bees since the first grade, will be competing there too. Last year he placed 14th out of 275.

This year, 286 spellers are in the finals. That's the highest number in the event's history. Thirteen-year-old Samir Patel is competing for the fifth time. Will 2007 be his year to shine? Or will Matthew manage to pull off an upset victory? Find out on May 31. The championship finals will be broadcast live on ABC from 8 to 10 p.m.


Check out this Spelling Success word search!


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