A Growing Tradition 

In 2009, former Falk librarian Laurie Williams took a small crew of fourth through sixth graders to the Western Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English (WPCTE) English Festival for the first time. Relying on a parent caravan to drive students to the event, Williams says the program was a small endeavor, “akin to a lunchtime book club with a field trip at the end of the year.” 

In 2016, newly retired librarian Benoni Outerbridge followed Williams’ lead when he brought fifteen fourth through sixth graders to the festival for the first time. Now, a decade later, the English Festival has become a highly anticipated annual tradition, with over 100 participants from five grade levels participating in the most recent competition. 

During the festival, which takes place at La Roche University, teams hear from featured authors, eat lunch on campus, and participate in battle-of-the-books style contests based on the selected book list. In preparation, they spend months reading the year’s books, discussing themes and characters, and practicing various competitions with Falk’s librarians. 

2026 Competition 

On Wednesday, May 20, a record number of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders took a bus to La Roche University for day one of the English Festival. Students were divided into 20 teams, each ready to be tested on the 2026 book list: “Al Capone Throws a Curve” by Gennifer Choldenko, “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill, "Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good” by Louis Stowell, and “Project Mercury” by Ronald L. Smith. 

Before the competition began, featured author Gennifer Choldenko “spoke about her career as a writer, starting with a book she wrote in elementary school about a grain of rice that ended up in the disposal,” says Outerbridge. She also shared a behind-the-scenes look at her writing process for the historical fiction novel “Al Capone Throws a Curve,” which included time interviewing prisoners and working as a tour guide at Alcatraz. 

After her talk, students headed to classrooms, where the competition officially kicked off. In the end, eight Falk teams came out on top. It could have been even more, Outerbridge explains, but Falk teams made up over half of all teams present and had to compete against themselves! 

The next day, the largest group of seventh and eighth graders in Falk’s English Festival history joined the fun, beginning with a presentation from Patricia Park, author of the YA coming-of-age novel “What’s Eating Jackie Oh?” “Park talked about growing up in Queens, NY as a child of Korean immigrants, the importance of food as sustenance for her mother, and her experiences with imposter syndrome,” Outerbridge shares.  

Following the talk, students spent the afternoon doing book trivia, answering insight questions, and competing in a contest called the “Talk Show,” new to this year’s seventh graders. In addition to “What’s Eating Jackie Oh,” contests covered “Chasing Secrets” by Gennifer Choldenko, “Iveliz Explains It All” by Andrea Beatriz Arango, “Pages & Co.: The Bookwanderers” by Anna James, “Play Like a Girl” by Misty Wilson, and “Spaced Out” by Stuart Gibbs. 

Like their younger peers, Falk’s Middle School contestants excelled in the competition, with one team placing first in all three eighth-grade contests and another winning two out of three seventh-grade contests. Even so, Kagan says the English Festival has never been about winning but about the reading, preparation, and dedication students put into the festival throughout the school year. “I’m proud of the program we have built,” Outerbridge adds. “It’s part of our mission to create a culture of reading.”