BY HOLLY PRESTIDGE Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Adam Sachs made a little bit of history, but a blockade finally stopped him.

Adam, a first-grader at Henrico County's Maybeury Elementary School, competed tonight in the countywide Spelling Bee at Wilder Middle School.

In the first round of the competition, he misspelled the word "blockade," leaving out the "k," to end his remarkable effort.

Sachs is the first Maybeury first-grader to compete in the division bee, typically for students in grades three through five and middle school students. School officials allowed firstand second-graders to compete this year, and Adam topped everybody else at his school to make the cut for tonight's division championship round.

He won his classroom bee. And he became the school-wide champion earlier this month when he correctly spelled the word "sombrero" in the final round.

His parents say Adam has been reading since age 4. Among his favorite books are the Harry Potter series (he's currently reading the fifth book). They said they started playing games during car rides where they'd ask Adam to spell words, and he eventually made it to words like "cardiologist" and "symphony."

Adam's mother, Roberta Sachs, said the love of reading is a family affair.

"He loves learning, he loves words," she said.

Tonight's bee "is not just about Adam, his mother said, "it's about power to the little kids." Contact Holly Prestidge at hprestidge@timesdispatch.com.