The Lakeridge Elementary Reading Raccoons represented Mercer Island at the Regional Global Reading Challenge on March 13, placing third. The team members are Isabel Peng, Lis Grove, Kate Lenington, Henry Thomas, Sebastian Gonzales and Lauren Evans.

Before the regional challenge, the Raccoons had won the Lakeridge Challenge and the Mercer Island District Challenge on Feb. 28, where they competed with Island Park and St. Monica.

The Global Reading Challenge is a reading competition put on by the King County Library System. The Reading Raccoons are all in 4th grade and represent each classroom at Lakeridge.

They have been meeting the last couple of months as a team during school hours every Tuesday and Thursday to practice. The school librarian, Erica Otteson, introduced six books to the kids in the fall, which they have been reading and re-reading ever since.