The sound of turning pages was all that could be heard on the normally lively St. Margaret’s School campus most afternoons in mid-October.

That’s because SMS students joined young people at hundreds of other schools, libraries and bookstores across the country to celebrate the eighth annual Teen Read Week. Girls read a pleasure book of their choice for 30 minutes each day during time that administrators carved out of the school’s busy schedule.

“It definitely was a success,” said Librarian Dale Harter, who coordinated the program. “Reading is not only the key to academic achievement, it’s also an enriching habit that supports lifelong learning. I wish we could build reading into every day.”

A peek into classrooms and study halls during reading time revealed a wide range of literary tastes among SMS students. Books in the Harry Potter, Gossip Girls and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series were popular. Other girls went for such classics as Anna Karenina, The Last of the Mohicans, Cyrano de Bergerac and Don Quixote.

Students who read non-fiction, this year’s Teen Read Week theme, were entered into a drawing for a Barnes and Noble gift certificate. Winner Maya Clark read a biography of Gandhi. Other non-fiction choices included biographies of Johnny Cash, Magic Johnson and Jane Addams, and topics that included the Holocaust, women in Saudi Arabia and mythology.

Many faculty members also participated by reading along with their classes or speaking about their favorite book during announcement period.

Teen Read Week is the national adolescent literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. This year’s event took place October 16-22.