July 2022 Newsletter

I had no idea that July is such a busy hashtag holiday month. It’s National Mango and Melon Month, National Deli Salad Month, National Carpet Cleaning Month and National Make a Difference to Children Month. 

 

I understand the mangos, the melons, and the deli salad. I’m not too sure about the Carpet Cleaning but National Make a Difference to Children month makes no sense to me at all. Shouldn’t we be doing our very best to make a difference to children every month and isn’t that what most people are doing?

 

Summer is a much-needed time for relaxation and rejuvenation for children and adults and there is nothing as joyful as seeing children running free, getting dirty, and wearing themselves out in the sun. We know, however, that our struggling readers must work hard over the summer to make sure they continue to make as much progress as possible. 

 

Reading Allowed tutors and students are taking time to relax this July, but they are also working hard as they know that there is no time to waste when a student has literary challenges. Reading Allowed is making a difference to children in July as well as August, September, October, November, and December… because every struggling reader deserves the highest quality structured literacy instruction every month of the year.

 

A watermelon-loving crocodile imagines the worst after swallowing a seed: “it’s growing in my guts! Soon vines will come out of my ears!” After much fretting, the croc burps and brings the seed back up. Crisis over…until the next bite.

Caveboy Tek is obsessed with his electronic devices and ignores the world around him until his family and friends hatch a plan to get him to unplug.

In this lovely biographical portrait of the legendary Mexican painter, feminist icon, and artistic genius, the author introduces and connects each of Kahlo’s many pets (who comforted her and served as subjects for her paintings) with the artist.

In 1976, Ellis is sad about his parents’ divorce, but at least he’s looking forward to summer vacation. Alas, relaxation is put on hold when his dad announces he needs Ellis’ help to bring his latest business enterprise to life: a shop devoted to selling his chocolate-chip confections. The bakery space is in the middle of nowhere, his dad hasn’t finalized a recipe, and there are only six weeks to get things up and running. The author, Amos, is the real-life son of Wally “Famous” Amos, cookie entrepreneur.

Little Bear loves blueberries, and while picking them for Mama so she can make his favorite blueberry cake, he eats them all and must find a way not to come home empty handed.

This picture book biography of E.B. White will help you discover the man behind Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. You will learn about his childhood surrounded by animals, his love of nature, his work for a New York magazine, and his family. You’ll also learn how writing filled him with joy from an early age and how he came up with ideas for Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web.

A burger and a hot dog

One day had a nasty spat.

The burger got insulted

‘Cause the hot dog called him flat.  

Burgers and hot dogs get into brawls, an ice cream bar stranded at the beach becomes just a stick–such are the misadventures of various foods in this funny collection of poems.

Mr. Tiger walks upright and wears a top hat and coat with a bow tie. But his orange fur is the only spot of color in his very dull, very proper community, and Mr. Tiger is bored: “He wanted to loosen up. He wanted to be…wild.” And so, Mr. Tiger drops to all fours and for the first time looks happy. As he gets progressively wilder, roaring and shedding his uncomfortable clothes, the town animal-folk are shocked and banish him to the wilderness—which, he decides, is “a magnificent idea.”

 

What do REAL PIGEONS do? They fight crime, of course. Wait, what? You didn’t know your town is protected by a secret squad of crime-fighting feathered friends? Well, REAL PIGEONS solve mysteries. REAL PIGEONS fight bad guys. And REAL PIGEONS won’t stop until your neighborhood is safe and all the questions are answered.

Marcus loves to draw comics about Toothpick, a young Black superhero. When his father insists he join an after-school club, he signs up for the filmmaking class. Maybe he can turn his Toothpick comics into a movie. After an unfortunate encounter with her on the bus, he isn’t thrilled to see that Sierra is in the club too. Then he learns that the class will also work together on Sierra’s screenplay, Phone Zombies. Furious, Marcus quits. Now his dream may never become a reality.

Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he’s armed with catapults and a moat, video games, and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the ]intelligent monster known as Blarg. So Jack builds a team: his dorky best friend, Quint; the reformed middle school bully, Dirk; Jack’s loyal pet monster, Rover; and Jack’s crush, June. With their help, Jack is going to slay Blarg, achieve the ultimate Feat of Apocalyptic Success, and be average no longer.

When the summer moon is full, a beach trip is an epic way to spend the night. Vampirina and her clan gear up for a festive time at the beach. Keeping her ballet lessons in mind, Vampirina demi-plies on a surfboard, leaps for a volleyball, and finishes each competition with style, even if she doesn’t always come out on top.

 

Jabari has decided that today is the day he will jump off the high dive. But when he and his father and sister arrive at the pool, he’s suddenly not quite so sure. He gets in line but then lets the other kids go ahead of him. He gets halfway up the ladder but then scurries back down to do stretches. His father lets him know it’s OK to be scared, and before Jabari knows it, he has jumped off the high dive with a huge, satisfying splash.