Library Reading Challenge

A reading challenge pushes you to read widely and think carefully about language. As you encounter new vocabulary and figurative language across different genres and topics, you build a richer, more flexible understanding of how words work — and how writers use them to create effect.

Vocabulary Strategies

• Context clues — use the surrounding sentences to infer meaning.
• Word parts — identify prefixes, roots, and suffixes (e.g. pre-, -tion, -ful).
• Connotation — consider whether a word has a positive, negative, or neutral feel.
• Replace and test — substitute a word you know and see if the sentence still makes sense.

Types of Figurative Language

• Simile — compares two things using "like" or "as": "as brave as a lion."
• Metaphor — states one thing is another: "The kitchen was a beehive of activity."
• Personification — gives human qualities to non-human things: "The wind whispered through the trees."
• Hyperbole — deliberate exaggeration: "I've told you a million times."
• Alliteration — repetition of the same starting sound: "Silent silver streams."