At an assembly Tuesday for the Paul Banks Elementary School’s Read-a-thon, intergalactic mailman Commander Mike McKinney delivered a message from aliens on a distant planet to the students. The aliens heard that Paul Banks is the best school to learn to read. They want to visit, but don’t know how to build a spaceship, Commander Mike said. If the students read 120,000 minutes by Feb. 3, they will unclock the 10 files in the Galactic Library that will teach the aliens how to build a spaceship. As students read and unlock each of the files, a model of the spaceship will be built in the lobby.

“You can read on the school bus. You can read in school. You can read in the library. You can read at home,” said Paul Banks Principal Eric Pederson.