TIFTON — Brett Hamilton, a 6th grade student at Eighth Street Middle School, was recently chosen as the Reader of the Year for 6th grade for Tift County and the entire State of Georgia.

Brett’s mother, Kristy, said that Brett has always been an avid reader, and that the essay he submitted was one he wrote in the 5th grade.

She said that in school, whenever he was done with his school work he would always grab a book and read.

“The teachers were telling me that’s one of the reasons they chose him as well as his skills in his English language class,” she said. “So they nominated him and asked him if he would write an essay saying what reading meant to him. We didn’t even realize it was a contest until we went to one of the programs and it was awarded.”

“I wrote a story about what reading meant to me and about how it made my childhood,” Brett said.

Brett said that he prefers reading over writing, but that if he has to write he tries to do the best he can.

“Reading lots of informational stories included a lot of big vocabulary words,” he said.

He said that when the family was informed about him winning, they were surprised.

The Hamiltons went to the Georgia Department of Education office in Atlanta for the award ceremony. He also went to the Georgia Reading Association headquarters in Byron and received an award there.

Brett said that he has recently started playing video games and wants to be a YouTuber.

“But if that doesn’t work I may go back into reading,” he said.