We have a reading crisis in America. Young people aren’t reading anymore, with roughly 40 percent of fourth-graders nationwide falling below basic reading levels. One of the great struggles of our time will be figuring out how to drag at least two generations of American kids back into reading, or get them into the habit for the first time. If all else fails, perhaps putting them in a figure-four leg lock until they relent and crack open a book, or maybe straight-up piledriving their head into a copy of Charlotte’s Web, might do the trick.
Some libraries are testing a version of that idea. Sort of.
A Program Called Lucha Libro Is Bringing Wrestling Matches to Libraries Across America
According to the Associated Press, a program called Lucha Libro (excellent name!) started by Jerry Rocha and Victor Dwight is bringing professional wrestling to public libraries across the United States to make reading more exciting for kids. Founded in 2024, the program combines story time with live wrestling matches that lean more toward the tradition of Mexican lucha libre-style wrestling, with masked wrestlers galore and high-flying acrobatics in a setting where, traditionally, a whisper could get you shushed.
Amidst the shelving and the delightful, intoxicating scent of old books is where you can find wrestlers with names like Loverboy Leo and Astro Knox (whose gimmick is that he’s an astronaut) inflicting brain damage on one another in the name of literacy.
To get a sense of just how professional wrestlers promote literacy, the AP reports that at a recent event at the Benicia Public Library in California, wrestler Llama Jack paused to read the children’s book Llama Llama Time to Share. In grand wrestling tradition, he was interrupted by a heel. They fought, Llama Jack won, and then he picked up the book and finished the story.
Hell yeah, brother.
There are more than 40 Lucha Libro events planned at libraries across the country in 2026. It sounds like a blast, but if I were to attend and I didn’t see someone get cracked in the head with a gigantic copy of War and Peace, I would be sorely disappointed.
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