Reading is the key to Brett Whip's vocabulary and was his key to representing Alaska in the Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge at Disney World in mid-April. Whip, a seventh-grade student at Homer Middle School, was accompanied to the contest by his mother, Lisa, and Nancy Vait, HMS language arts instructor.

"Brett was a worthy contestant representing not only the state of Alaska, but our 'hamlet by the sea,'"Vait said.

In its third year, the Word Power Challenge drew 1.6 million fourth through eighth grade contestants from across the nation. Local and state competitions whittled that number down to the 53 that went to Orlando, Whip among them.

Questions given to the Orlando contestants were based on books. For example, the Artful Dodger is referred to as a rapscallion; from the context of that reference, youngsters were asked to select the matching definition from a choice of four.

Ming-Ming Tran, a sixth grader from Princeton Junction, N.J., took first place in the competition, winning a $25,000 college scholarship. Whip was not among the finalists in the national competition, but has already crafted his strategy for next year's event based on Tran's study tactic — reading the SAT — Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Whip's reading will be put aside briefly this month to watch a television special of the Word Power Challenge championship that is being produced by Al Roker Productions, Inc., and will air nationwide on NBC.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.