The team from the Casa Montessori School won first place at the state finals of the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl last weekend at the University of Georgia after winning the northern division competition. 

Team members are Saya Abney, Malini Patel, Teresita Tenenbaum, Janani Suresh, Carolyn Maynard, Julia Maynard, Christopher Freel, Isabella Tenenbaum, Sindhu Kannapan, and alternates Ajay Kanteti and Andrew Fuller.

Their coaches Aileen Nakamura and Binita Patel.

Seventeen elementary school teams, representing school systems including Marietta and Cobb public schools, competed in the regional competition. Team members had 10 seconds to answer questions and could receive no help from teammates. Teams received 10 points for each question they answered correctly.

Students began preparing for the Reading Bowl last fall by reading books from a list of 17 Georgia Book Award nominees. They met regularly throughout the fall and winter to discuss the books and to simulate the Reading Bowl competition with question and answer sessions using buzzers.

The Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl was named after the DeKalb County media specialist who created it. The Reading Bowl is open to students in fourth through 12th grades statewide.