By Kari Lucin, staff writer

Sixth-grader Chelsea Petersen was so surprised when she found out she qualified for the state championship in the Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge that she actually screamed.

When she told her teachers at Sibley Elementary School, they did too.

&8220;We take a test, and it’s just vocabulary,&8221; Petersen said.

Qualifying for the state test meant that she was one of the top 100 vocabulary students in sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade in the entire state of Minnesota.

Reader’s Digest has had a word power column for 60 years, and the competition is an outgrowth of that column. Thousands of schools participate in the Word Power Challenge nationwide.

If Petersen qualifies at the state level, she and her teacher Kristen Seeger will get an all-expenses-paid trip to Orlando to compete at nationals. She took the state test last week, but the results have not returned.

&8220;I don’t think 60 or 70 percent of adults could take that test,&8221; Seeger said.

Petersen, 12, loves to read, and is reading the &8220;Harry Potter&8221; books again. She plans to go through the &8220;Series of Unfortunate Events&8221; series after she’s done with that. Her friends are all readers too.

&8220;I can stay up all night reading,&8221; Petersen said.

Whenever Petersen comes across a word in a book she doesn’t know, she pauses to look it up. She doesn’t often use the more unusual words in everyday conversation.

Petersen participates in dance, likes to run and play soccer, and she also plays the trumpet. She will be in the musical for fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Albert Lea High School.

Her favorite word is &8220;cockamamie,&8221; meaning either &8220;trifling&8221; or &8220;ludicrous, nonsensical, wacky.&8221;