May 2025

Jump Into Summer Reading and Learning!

In this issue: Summer Learning / Children’s Books & Authors / Learning at Home / In the Classroom / Literacy Events & News

Summer Learning: A Season for Reading and Hands-On Exploration

As we transition into summer, we’re thinking about how to use unstructured time to help children fill their “knowledge bank” about the world. Follow children’s interests – some will dive deeply into science while others may be more interested in the creative arts or history or cultures of the world. Here are some resources to explore — including Tree Trekkers, our brand new activity kit all about trees!

To Learn About the World … Start with a Book!

On our companion summer learning site, kids choose topics they want to explore (dinosaurs, detectives, bugs, flight, folktales, stars, music …), find great kids’ books for each topic, and then dive into some of the hands-on activities, writing ideas, educational apps, podcasts, and websites for inquisitive kids.
 

New Activity Kit: Tree Trekkers 

Our newly sprouted activity kit is all about connecting kids with the trees in their community. Tree Trekkers gives kids a chance to learn all about trees — their role in the ecosystem and in climate change, their characteristics and life cycles, their many benefits to humans and to other species, the stories they tell us about our history, and how trees, forests, and parks have inspired art, music, and literature. What “wood” we do without trees?

Related blog post: Time to Branch Out!

“Bee” a Bug Buddy 

Summer is a great time to explore bugs with kids! Investigate all things insect with Bug Buddies, our free resource for families and summer youth programs with recommended books, videos, apps, and hands-on activities to guide kids’ exploration of insects and their role in our ecosystems and lives.

Use Summer Fun to Build Background Knowledge 

When kids have lots of experiences to draw on, they have a better chance of making a connection with what they read! Help your child build background knowledge this summer with these activities. (Tips available in English and Spanish)

Summer Learning Tips to Go

For bite-sized activity ideas, try our Reading Tips to Go text message service. Sign up to receive three messages per week, featuring hands-on activities to keep kids reading, creating, exploring — and learning — all summer long! (Available in English and Spanish)

Children’s Books & Authors

Our NEW Annual Big Summer Booklist!

Summer is a great time to explore, dig into things that fascinate, and learn something new — through books! In our new booklist you’ll find stories about aliens, ghosts, dragons, detectives, and adventurers. You can travel the world through food, experience nature through poetry, become an expert on facts about our world (including the world’s smallest creatures), and much more. We hope you’ll have fun exploring!

Find more great book recommendations in our summer booklist archive, themed booklists library, and searchable Book Finder database.

Celebrating Asian Pacific American History and Culture 

Through children’s books, video interviews with award-winning children’s authors, activities, and educational resources, we celebrate and learn about the rich history and cultural heritage of Asian Pacific Americans. May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, but we encourage sharing these authors, books, and histories throughout the year and across the curriculum.

Related: Graphic novels with Asian Pacific Heritage themes (from our sister site, Colorín Colorado)

Meet Author and Illustrator Grace Lin  

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than 20 books for kids — from picture books to young adult novels. Many of her books explore the Asian-American experience or are inspired by Chinese folktales (such as her 2025 book The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon), yet their themes are universal. In our video interview, Grace talks about the ways in which her own experiences find their way into her stories, how food and folklore connect her to her Chinese culture, and how she dreams of the day when diverse books are just books.

“Books erase bias, they make the uncommon everyday, and the mundane exotic. A book makes all cultures universal.”

Literacy and Learning at Home

Active Read Alouds  

The best story times are very interactive: You are reading the story and asking questions, your child is talking and there is lots of conversation between the two of you. We’ve got lots of practical tips on lively read alouds that celebrate reading joy, model fluency, and help your child build vocabulary and comprehension. (In English or Spanish, from our Growing Readers series).

Read-alouds in action: Watch how this adult engages kids in active conversation about vegetables, and how an outdoor “milking station” turns into a memorable way to learn new vocabulary words like pasteurizing. (To set up your own farm station, download our Farms reading adventure pack.)

Your Child’s Communication Development, Birth to Five

Every child is unique and has an individual rate of development. This chart represents average milestones — the age when most children will accomplish skills in hearing, understanding, and talking. (From the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association).

Explore more resources for National Speech-Language and Hearing Month:

• Early Identification of Speech, Language, and Hearing Disorders
• Creating a Healthy Technology Environment for Your Child (Birth to Five)
• Effects of Hearing Loss on Development
• Speech and Language Services in Schools
• More resources from ASHA

In the Classroom

Is Morphology Training Better Than Phonics Instruction?  

In this updated post, literacy expert Tim Shanahan says that it makes sense to include simple morphology lessons as early as kindergarten, increasing the lessons as vocabulary and spelling become more complex. Gradually the proportion of word reading instruction should shift from phonology to morphology. The original blog entry included no references, this one is chock-full!

Related: Morphology in children’s books, and what it means for learning (2025 Research Report)

Sorting Reading Science from Sales Pitches

The constant flood of pseudo-scientific claims makes it increasingly difficult to identify effective teaching practices. Learn how to distinguish between evidence-based reading instruction and well-marketed myths — in this new post from Margaret Goldberg, literacy coach and co-founder of the Right to Read Project. 

“Education consultants (intentional “brand ambassadors”) swoop into social media conversations to pitch their products anytime a teacher asks a relevant question.”

Learning to Read Around the World: Italy

Launa Hall’s travels take her to a small town in the Apennine mountains of Italy — the land of transparent orthography! Here she discovers how real-world learning opportunities and strong, long-term relationships between teachers and students benefit students of all ages..

“As I said goodbye and walked back down the road breathing in the fresh mountain air, I considered what I’d seen. I thought it was going to be Italian itself that made this a great place to learn to read. It’s true that a straightforward writing system is a huge plus, although I learned that even with that benefit, teaching reading is a complex topic and methods continue to change. But I was more struck by what can be accomplished when a group of well-trained teachers, given reasonable class sizes, a sensible schedule, and a structure that fosters strong bonds with students, come together to create a school environment. The result is something special.”

Writing 101: Our Self-Paced PD Module  

Teachers, are you looking for PD opportunities for the summer? Try our updated self-paced course on evidence-based writing instruction. Dig deep into the key elements of writing — basic mechanical skills (handwriting, spelling, grammar and punctuation); a strong vocabulary; an understanding of genre, text structure, and voice; organizational skills; and higher-order thinking. Learn more about the writing process and instructional strategies that work. (Developed in partnership with the National Education Association)

Literacy Events & News

American Library Association Annual Conference
June 26–30, 2025 | Philadelphia, PA

International Dyslexia Association Annual Conference
October 23–25, 2025 | Atlanta, GA

Kindergarten’s Overlooked Absenteeism Problem
The 74

National Ambassadors for Young People's Literature Respond to the Removal of the Librarian of Congress
Publishers Weekly

A Complete Listing of Children’s Literature Statues: 2025 Edition
School Library Journal

A Roadmap for Restoring School Librarians
Publishers Weekly

Building a replacement for NCES
Flypaper (Fordham Institute)

Using PBL to Support Young English Learners
Edutopia

Most parents don’t enjoy reading to their children, survey suggests
The Guardian

The Wide-Ranging Positives of Read-Alouds
Edutopia

Opinion: Ten Things I’m Doing After Listening to Sold a Story
The 74