Drachman Montessori Magnet School sixth-grader Victoria Salamon presents kindergartener Colby John with her reading medal. All the Downtown-area school's roughly 310 students were honored Wednesday for reading large numbers of books — at least 10 each — this year.

David Sanders / Arizona Daily Star

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Parades and medals are ingredients for a pageantry more often associated with sports, not academics.

But not at Drachman Montessori Magnet School, which held a showy little ballyhoo Wednesday morning to celebrate its readers.

The annual Parade of Reading Champions all started innocently enough four years ago.

Teacher-librarian Gloria Carrington told a cafeteria full of kindergarten- through third-graders that she planned to announce the names of the students in the school's frequent reader club so they could "parade" to the stage at the last school assembly.

Apparently, she'd underestimated the adage that everyone loves a parade. And try as she might to explain she meant parade in the sense of "walking up proudly," she couldn't contain their imaginations, which conjured up images of banners, decorated-wagons-as-floats, and a "victory lap" around the school property where passing motorists might honk at them.

All those things came to fruition Wednesday for the school at 1085 S. 10th Ave., south of Downtown

Students, wearing signs indicating how many books they read during the year, came to the stage — sometimes bounding gleefully, sometimes bashfully hiding their faces — to get medals and in some cases to thank the people who helped them meet their goals.

They needed to have finished at least 10 books to walk in the parade, and every one of the roughly 310 students met that minimum. Eleven of them read a whopping 1,000 books.

About 120 read more than 100 — a feat that translates into recognition at school assembles, trophies and a place on the library wall for their photographs.

Some students were even carrying books with them in the parade, high-fiving teacher-librarian Carrington on their way past. "You rock!" Carrington told one boy, patting him on the back. "All right, Laura! You're a superstar!" to a girl.

It didn't matter whether they read 20 or 200 — the students got the same enthusiastic treatment. "It's not a competition," Carrington said. "We want to celebrate whatever their personal goal is."

Some families, she said, come in and check out five books a day. Other students work through lunch or with mentors.

The students turn in book lists to the library — on everything from the backs of electric bills to the backs of paper bags — and their parents sign off to verify they are really doing the work.

Patricia Mazon-Brownell, 34, a college lab specialist, said her son, Garett, read 117 books as a kindergartner last year and wanted to push his goal to 120 this year. He made it, which makes him a good role model for his preschool-age sister.

"You have to make reading a routine," Mazon-Brownell said. "My husband and I — no matter how tired we might be — make sure we read with them every night."

Garett said he liked "Star Wars" books the best, followed closely by anything to do with dinosaurs. He said he plans to keep reading over the summer.

Tanya Lachowicz, who teaches a first-, second- and third-grade combination class, said she is amazed at some of the transformations she's seen. She has a second-grader reading "The Lord of the Rings" novels, for example.

"Plenty of students come in without a love of reading. It's a struggle for them," Lachowicz said. "But by the end of the year, every one of my students can sit for 30 minutes and quietly read."

Seventy percent of Drachman students are minority, and more than three-quarters qualify for free and reduced lunch.

And they like reading so much that for nine years straight, Drachman has boasted the highest library checkout of any elementary school in Tucson Unified School District.

From the beginning of the school year, through March, students had already checked out 24,174 books — averaging 100 books every day.

Principal Jesus Celaya said the school is also among the top 15 elementary schools in reading and writing AIMS scores — a feat he chalks up at least in part to the reading program.

Ivan Georgiev, a 45-year-old cancer researcher, said his son, Nikola, read 600 books last year. This year, he was one of the few to reach 1,000 books.

Originally from Bulgaria, Georgiev said the American school system is more relaxed than the European system he grew up with, so he is heartened to see the reading focus.

"I'm so proud because it has helped him develop his reading and writing skills," said Georgiev, one of many parents armed with a camera to chronicle their child's moment of literary glory.

Nikola, 9, said he thought it would be hard to get to his goal — and it was. It required reading every day. "I really wanted to challenge myself," he said.

For that kind of commitment, a $5 trophy and some streamers for wagons looks more and more like a great trade.