NATCHEZ — One of Cathedral Elementary School’s sixth-grade members of the 500-point Accelerated Reader Club is as passionate about history as she is about reading, and she uses both passions to learn.

Sixth-grader, Sally Hudson Linton said she visited Washington, D.C., last summer with her friend and classmate, Charlotte Book.

Linton said she even got to tour the White House as the guest of a U.S. Congressman — but Linton said she found the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to be the most fascinating part of the trip.

Since the trip, Linton said she has started reading about that part of history more and more.

“It was really sad,” Linton said. “It told the story of what these people went through. … I’m not really sure why I’m so interested in that part of history. Maybe I just like hearing each person’s story and how they survived.”

Linton said she just finished reading “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” a novel by John Boyne about a child who forges a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy in a concentration camp.

Linton said she also recently started reading “Resistance” by Owen Sheers.

“It’s about a girl with a group of people trying to help Jews during the Holocaust,” Linton said. “I like learning about it. … I like learning about the past and how it affects the world we live in.”

History, however, is not Linton’s only passion, she said. Linton has also been a ballet dancer since she was 3 years old, is an active dancer at the Natchez Ballet Academy and plays tennis at Cathedral.

Linton said she also enjoys reading about fictional worlds as much as the real one.

“I like to read,” she said. “I like the Harry Potter books and finished reading all of them maybe a month ago. There’s a lot of adventure in them … and a lot of magic.”

Linton is also very passionate about her pets — a Shih Tzu and three cats — and she said hopes to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

Cara Serio, Cathedral Schools’ Development Office Coordinator, said Linton achieves top marks in all of her classes and is the top reader in her grade.

Linton is the daughter of Ashley Anderson and Michael Linton and is the stepdaughter of Jim Anderson.