Portage second-grader sets school record for reading 2 million words in a year

Chicago Tribune

24-05-2025

Philip Mulroe, 8, has a goal of reading 3 million words by the end of third grade, starting this summer.
It follows up his successful goals of reading 1 million words as a first-grader and 2 million as a second-grader at Kyle Elementary School in Portage.
Portage Township School Corp. honored Philip on Facebook earlier this month, saying he broke the all-time record at Kyle, becoming the first second-grader to read over 2 million words in a single school year.
In fact, he was at 2,343,556 words as of Thursday, as measured by tests given at the school for reading comprehension for the books he's read. Each test, specific to a book, has the number of words in that book.
Philip reads mostly fiction and humorous books, he said, although he's read others.
He comes from a long line of readers. There's a video of him with his great-grandmother as he's learning to read. His grandmother was an avid reader. His mother, Kristin Mulroe, said she reads at least a book a week. 'I've always been a big reader, even as a kid,' she said.
His father, Phil, is a social studies teacher at Portage High School and the head boys golf coach. As might be expected, Phil enjoys reading golf newsletters. He also enjoys books by Admiral William H. McRaven, including 'Make Your Bed,' which the Bears front office staff was reading last summer. As Phil works toward a master's degree in political science at Indiana University, he's reading books related to that topic as well.
Kristin read to her son every night when he was little, before he learned to read. When he was a preschooler, she read Captain Underpants books to him. As he learned to read, they would alternate chapters.
'I really do the Kindle book because it's easier to read ebooks,' she said. A Kindle is easier to carry than a stack of books while traveling. Kristin uses Good Reads to keep track of what she's read.
Her son uses stays up late, reading in bed. That's when he does most of his reading.
'The power went out last week, and I see him in there with a flashlight, reading,' Kristin said.
Philip prefers physical books. He's an avid library user, going through many of the books at his school library, including all but two of the biographies in the series he read.
He goes to the public library, too, and his mother signed him up for a book subscription, receiving five books a month. 'We found some new series that way,' Kristin said.
Next up is the Harry Potter series, Philip said.
'I've never seen the movies, either,' Kristin said, so she's looking forward to that series as well.
This late in the school year, Philip isn't able to borrow books from the school library after borrowing about a book a day the rest of the year. Now he's reading on his school Chromebook.
Philip can read at a middle school level, Kristin said.
His reading comprehension is impressive. 'All the books I read over summer last year, I got 100% on all the quizzes,' Philip said, when school started last August.
Reading isn't Philip's only activity. He enjoys soccer and basketball, too. 'I honestly don't read all that much. I just read long, and I read fast,' he said.