By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

Rex Gann, a first-grader at Alabaster’s Creek View Elementary School, paused for a moment, looked up at the ceiling and slowly smiled as he mentally calculated the number of books he has read so far this school year.

“One thousand twenty-five,” Gann said quietly, the smile spreading farther across his face.

Just down the hall, Rex’s twin sister, Sasha, was giving him a run for his money.

“I’ve read 1,000,” Sasha said. “I just love reading books. I can’t stop reading.”

The Gann twins have already set records in their respective classrooms for number of books read in a single school year, and said they don’t plan to stop anytime soon.

When school began in August 2013, Rex’s teacher, Susie Turner, and Sasha’s teacher, Sally Perkins, encouraged their students to keep a reading log throughout the school year tracking the number of books they complete.

Soon after the school year began, the two teachers noticed the Ganns’ enthusiasm for reading.

“Each day, I would ask the kids if they wanted to take a book home to read that night. Rex would choose three or four books and read them that night,” Turner said, noting Rex has actually read about 1,050 books. “He absolutely loves reading.”

Perkins said the twins’ parents encourage their children to read as much as possible, and often read together as a family every day.

“They make it a big family time,” Perkins said. “With kids, the more they read, the better readers they become. It sounds like a teacher’s cliché, but it’s true.”

Rex was quick to identify his favorite book as “Rhyming Dust Bunnies” by Jan Thomas, and Sasha named the Magic Tree House series as her favorite.

Although they have both topped the 1,000-book mark, the twins said it’s not a competition.

“I didn’t try to read 1,000 books. I just wanted to read,” Sasha said, noting the family takes frequent trips to Alabaster’s Albert L. Scott Public Library. “At home, we have a stack of books that we’ve read and a stack that we haven’t read.”

“When I got close to 1,000, I thought ‘Wow, I’m going to read 1,000 books,’” Rex said. “It just kind of happened.”