Webinar Transcript

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Karly O'Brien: All right, well, I want to make sure we get through all of the wonderful content that we have tonight, or this afternoon. See, I'm gonna say tonight a couple times. I apologize, everyone. It's just natural for me. So, this afternoon, I'm really excited. If you are looking for really easy, fun, engaging ways to keep your child reading and learning this summer, then you're definitely in the right place. Today, we are going to talk about simple, joyful ideas.

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Karly O'Brien: that families can use to keep kids engaged all summer long. So if you're a teacher, feel free to relay this information to families. This will be recorded and posted to our site as well, and available

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Karly O'Brien: For indefinitely, so feel free to check that out and share those resources. If you are families, welcome, we're really excited, to have you directly in our audience. So, throughout the session, we're going to talk about different themes and how, fun summer themes can make reading more exciting. We'll share book recommendations that reflect a wide range of experiences and ages, and then give you lots of low-prep activities that you can

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Karly O'Brien: do at home or on the go, maybe even in the car when you're on your summer trip. So, throughout the session.

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Karly O'Brien: I'm really excited. We're also going to be able to feature short excerpts from different stories, with my amazing friend, my dear friend Katie Potter from Lee & Low Books. And I encourage you to, whether you're a teacher or a family, if you have any kids around you this afternoon, encourage you to bring them in for the session, because we will be engaging in lots of, fun stories, and at the end of the session, we will dive into

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Karly O'Brien: a little demo of our summer website, and show you a little intro video, that kicks off, the entire initiative. So, I'm really excited, and with that, we're gonna jump right in. So, if you are new, welcome, but if you are not, here's a reminder. We are Reading is Fundamental, or RIF, the nation's largest children's literacy nonprofit.

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Karly O'Brien: We are celebrating our 60th anniversary this year, and since our founding, we've always been about inspiring a love of reading and ensuring, children have opportunities and access to resources that they needed, that they need to become lifelong readers.

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Karly O'Brien: So, if you've joined us before, you probably have seen me before. My name is Carly O'Brien, I'm the Literacy Services Manager here at RIF. I'm a former classroom teacher and reading specialist, and then now at RIF, I develop and support all different reading resources, professional development opportunities, such as these webinars, and then different family engagement initiatives to help teachers and families

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Karly O'Brien: support kiddos during their reading development, and build a love of reading. So, I'm really excited to be joined by my friend Katie. I'm going to turn it over to you, Katie, to introduce yourself.

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Katie Potter: Hi, Carly, thank you so much. I am so grateful for you inviting me today. I am always happy to be here and a part of any RIF initiative, so thank you so much. I am Katie Potter. I'm the Senior Literacy Manager at Leon Lowe Books. I've been at Leon Lowe for 9 years, and I develop the educator guides, the resources, professional development.

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Katie Potter: And I also work with nonprofit organizations, curriculum developers, school districts.

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Katie Potter: and consultants on incorporating our diverse books into their respective programming. And Lee and Low Books is the largest children's book publisher specializing in diversity and multiculturalism in the United States.

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Katie Potter: So, thank you again, Carly, for having me today.

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Karly O'Brien: We're so excited to have you, and for those of you that are not new, you might also recognize Katie, because Katie did a… another webinar for us, I want to say, maybe two, three years ago now. Every book is a multilingual learner book, so if you're interested in checking that out, it's on our website as well. So, Katie already said that she loves working with Rick, but I love working with her, so…

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Katie Potter: Thank you, Katie, for…

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Karly O'Brien: Of course, of course. So, we are gonna get, get started. So, quick agenda, we're gonna talk a little bit about why summer reading matters, we're gonna talk about the importance of engaging readers through theme-based activities, and, some themes you can choose for summer reading.

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Karly O'Brien: Then we will do a little bit of the Riff Summer Reading Camp Exploration, and then we will close and reflect. So when we dive into those different themes, that is when we will, also get an opportunity to hear different read-aloud excerpts and see examples of activities that, you can do aligned to those themes and stories by Katie. So, super excited!

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Karly O'Brien: So before we talk about all the fun ways to do it, let's ground ourselves in why we should focus on summer reading and why it's important. So the first thing being that it helps prevent the concept of the summer slide. There's decades of research that shows that kids can lose reading skills over the summer if they don't practice, especially if they're still building confidence as readers.

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Karly O'Brien: Another way, another reason why we should really, focus on it is because it keeps kids, excuse me, it keeps kids' brains active during the summer and ready for fall. So reading over the summer helps kids hold on to what they learned during the school year, so that it makes them feel more prepared for when the school year starts. So it gives them opportunities to practice those skills, so that they can feel confident when school

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Karly O'Brien: It's ready to start again.

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Karly O'Brien: It also builds stronger, more confident readers. This might go without saying, but the more kids read, even if it's a little bit each day, the more their skills and confidence grow.

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Karly O'Brien: Another thing is that it turns reading into habits. So, summer is a great time to build strong habits and help kids see reading as something fun, relaxing, and part of everyday life, and it's not an additional add-on, it's something that we already are doing and we can add to our routines.

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Karly O'Brien: Summer reading also helps close learning gaps. Similarly to preventing the summer slide, reading regularly over the summer gives kids more equal access to practice and learning, no matter where they start or end at the prior school year. And then lastly, the last two bullet points, summer reading really encourages choice and joy in reading, and it sets kids up for a strong start to the school year.

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Karly O'Brien: When kids, feel like they have the opportunity to pick their own books that they enjoy, they're more likely to stay engaged and excited about reading. And then students who continue to read during the summer often return to school feeling more confident.

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Karly O'Brien: So one way that we're going to spend most of our session talking about a way to support reading is through theme-based activities. So, the big reason why themes work so well is because themes help kids make a deeper understanding between reading and think of it as a larger experience, and it's not just us reading this book, we're connecting it to something outside. So when kids explore multiple books across the same

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Karly O'Brien: concept, topics, or ideas, they start making connections across those stories, remembering that information a lot deeper, and seeing how reading can show up in their own lives. It also, of course, helps build excitement, because kids start to recognize patterns across books, ideas, and topics that they are genuinely interested. So…

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Karly O'Brien: The good news is, is that this doesn't have to be something really complicated, and we at RIF, already kind of helped you think of some themes aligned to summer, but you can always pick your own as well.

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Karly O'Brien: And the importance of themes are that we're reading multiple books connected to that idea. So from there, it's an opportunity to talk about how books connect, ask questions, and add some simple, engaging activities tied to those themes. So this could look like

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Karly O'Brien: Drawing, cooking, going outside, making something together, and we're gonna talk a lot about those examples as we… as we look at some story examples as well today.

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Karly O'Brien: So the first theme, that we're going to talk about is Reading Explorers, and in this theme, kids can read stories filled with adventure, discovery, and exciting journeys. They can follow different characters as they build, excuse me, as they explore new places.

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Karly O'Brien: face challenges and go on quests while building their own reading adventure. So for each of the three themes, the first one being Reading Explorers, there will be a list of books suggested for different, grade ranges and aligned to that theme, and then for each theme, it will also have an activity aligned to the theme. So, at first glance here, you'll see some of our books.

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Karly O'Brien: included in this topic, which Katie's going to read aloud one of them soon and talk more specific examples, but on the right, you'll see a very generic reading explorer activity that can be used across all of the books. So, it's an opportunity for students to do one connecting activity that really has them explore multiple different stories.

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Karly O'Brien: I'm really excited to, talk a little bit about our first story, A Sky That Sings, and I'm going to turn it to you, Katie.

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Katie Potter: Okay, thanks so much, Carly. Okay, so this, A Sky That Sings is about Mia, a blind girl who enjoys identifying birds by their distinct calls and songs, and she leads her aunt through the park on a bird-listening adventure.

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Katie Potter: This is an award-winning story that centers a blind child who navigates the world independently, and her disability is central to the story, but it's not a part of the story's conflict. So it's not the topic of the story, and it's not what the story is about.

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Katie Potter: It's a warm and fun depiction of a family of color, centering a niece and her aunt, enjoying nature, and it introduces readers to a wide variety of birds that are common to manning areas in the United States.

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Katie Potter: It's great to pair with the Merlin app, if anyone is familiar with that. My family and I use it all the time.

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Katie Potter: And I read this book with my 6-year-old son, he's in kindergarten, so prime age for talking about summer slide, and we are such huge fans. We love the back matter, where it provides details on all of the birds.

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Katie Potter: featured in the story, so that's another key, key addition to this book. So I'm going to read aloud from 3 spreads, so you all get a little snippet into the book.

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Katie Potter: Notes come pouring out of the sky like raindrops.

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Katie Potter: Cheer up, cheerle, cheer!

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Katie Potter: That's a robin, I whisper. How on earth can you tell the voices apart? Tia asks. Her shoes scuff the path behind me.

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Katie Potter: Just listen, some of them say their names.

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Katie Potter: Jay! Jay, Jay! yells the Blue Jay. Chickadee! Sings the chickadee.

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Katie Potter: Lots of other voices are singing along. The songs weave together like tangled threads. But I don't hear my favorite voice.

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Katie Potter: Not yet.

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Katie Potter: Above us, there's a song that sounds like, sweet, sweet, sweet, I'm so sweet! It's coming from a little yellow bird with a pointed beak, way up in a tree, Tia whispers. Must be a yellow warbler, I whisper back.

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Katie Potter: Warbling is when there's so much song inside you, you can't stop singing out loud.

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Katie Potter: Come on, follow me! There's one special song we've got to find.

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Katie Potter: Mmm, smell that mud? I ask. We're getting near the pond. My sneakers soak up cool wetness at the water's edge.

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Katie Potter: Can't miss those red-winged blackbirds! They're so noisy! Quack, quack!

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Katie Potter: That one's easy.

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Katie Potter: Oh, there's a big one coming in! Tia says. Long peak and skinny, dangly legs. What's that?

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Katie Potter: That's a heron, I tell her. The heron splooshes into the pond. I can hear ripples in the shallows. Splash!

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Katie Potter: Maybe the heron cut a fish? Then, there's a whisper of wings as it flies away.

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Katie Potter: So those are just 3 spreads that I chose from the book that really showcases all of the fabulous imagery and sounds and onomatopoeia that's featured in this book. So you could definitely do activities modeling those strategies and techniques with kids at home or in any setting that you're in over the summer.

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Katie Potter: So, I, we have free educator guides for all of our books featured today. So, I shared a screenshot here that this is the book page on our website.

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Katie Potter: So when you click on the resources tab, you'll see the teacher's Guide, and then we also have other resources that accompany the book, such as, this is an interview, a radio interview with the author.

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Katie Potter: Where she's interviewed about different questions pertaining to the book.

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Katie Potter: But I chose… there are lots of questions and interdisciplinary activities, and I picked the Cornell Feeder Watch Cam. I don't know if you all have seen that. It's fascinating. You get to see all of these different kinds of birds in their… in their habitat.

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Katie Potter: And so, it's really fun for kids. It's wonderful to pair with this book.

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Katie Potter: Talking about all the different birds that they can see on the cameras, where are these birds located? So, really, Cornell is a fabulous resource.

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Katie Potter: And provides additional learning opportunities, especially when it comes to birds and alongside a sky that sinks.

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Katie Potter: So that's a sky that sings.

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Katie Potter: Check it out at your local library, or please feel free to reach out to me, too, if you have additional questions about any of these books.

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Katie Potter: So, Montgomery in the Case of a Golden Key is a middle grade novel, and it's the year 2008. 10-year-old Montgomery Carver is out to find the origin of a golden key found in his Southside Chicago community.

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Katie Potter: Which may or may not host the next Olympic Games, or supply the next President of the United States, or have a potential ghost hanging around. It's a really joyful middle grade novel featuring an African-American boy enjoying being the kid he is.

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Katie Potter: And a community should not be defined solely by its struggles, and the Washington Park community on the south side of Chicago has a really dynamic and interesting history that's ready to be shared and learned about.

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Katie Potter: So in the teacher's guide, which I'll talk about, you can work on reading comprehension and writing skills in a fun way, in this activity that I'm going to share in a little bit, but I'm going to read the first, like, paragraph or so.

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Katie Potter: Monty held the key in his hand. Treasure. He then walked across the room and put his ear to the door to make sure his parents weren't lurking around the hall. Safe.

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Katie Potter: He turned on his radio and danced to some rap music over to his desk. Then he grabbed his composition book, smiling from ear to ear, his chin once again dragging on the floor. He opened the book up to the conclusion of his last experiment, and skipped ahead 3 pages to a new section. He wrote down.

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Katie Potter: A golden key was in a ghost pouch in Old Lady Jenkins's sunflowers. Golden keys don't belong in sunflower beds. Neither do ghost pouches. What is the history of the ghost pouch and key?

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Katie Potter: Do they really belong to a ghost or someone else? Does the ghost even exist? What is ghost dust? Is the key real gold?

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Katie Potter: What does the golden cable go to? Did it wash up in this storm, like that bowl?

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Katie Potter: Hypothesis. An old person could have lost or hidden the pouch and key in the sunflower bed. Research. Examine the dust and key for clues. Start talking to some old people.

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Katie Potter: So, there are little snippets of these kinds of interstitial observations that Monty writes in his notebook throughout, so it's really fun for kids, to have variety in the text that they're reading.

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Katie Potter: So, in the teacher's guide, I selected an activity that's Read, Write, Think. There are plenty of active… additional activities on the… on that site, so I encourage you to check it out. But they could write… after concluding the book, their reading of the book, they could write a review.

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Katie Potter: This is a way, a fun way, that kids love being experts and being in charge of things, so having them write their own review of it, what would they want to say to a friend, what are some important details that they would want to include about the book? So you're getting into comprehension, you're practicing writing skills.

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Katie Potter: All having fun and doing this activity.

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Katie Potter: Again, free on our website.

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Karly O'Brien: Yes, and I definitely should have mentioned before we started, too, that if… as a… by you registering for the webinar, you will receive links to everything, so I'll make sure that all of the links that Katie is referring to are followed up in an email as well. So I want to make sure that you all can get these wonderful resources, so…

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Karly O'Brien: And yes, thanks, Katie. So for each of the themes, we're gonna highlight, in case you haven't caught on to our… our bit here, we're gonna highlight a picture book and then a middle school novel for each of those themes. So, thanks, Katie, for highlighting our first theme.

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Karly O'Brien: So, our second theme, is called STEM Star. So for this theme, kids can explore books about science, technology, engineering, and math.

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Karly O'Brien: They can think like problem solvers by designing, testing, and improving ideas using creativity and critical thinking. So, on the screen, you'll see just a couple of our many… our long list of books that we recommend.

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Karly O'Brien: And then on the right is the generic STEM activity that you can attach to any of those books. So for this one, you're building a bridge, so it really is taking you through the engineering process, and there's a handout as well, for downloadable for you all, for your kiddos to actually, design their bridge in their own, their own time.

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Karly O'Brien: So, gonna throw it back to you, Katie!

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Katie Potter: Okay, thanks, Carly. So, Dreaming Up, again, I keep talking about my 6-year-old, but really, he is, like, the prime audience and target for our work, both at Riff and Leon Lowe. But Dreaming Up is beloved by my 6-year-old and my 2-year-old. This is such

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Katie Potter: a wonderful way to get experimenting, both with STEM applications, with reading, with constructing, and anything tactile. So this is a picture book that connects works of architecture in the real world.

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Katie Potter: Famous buildings to the ways children build and play.

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Katie Potter: So you can see children's constructions taken to the level of architectural treasures. Dreaming Up is a unique celebration of children's playtime explorations and the surprising ways that you can find childhood experiences in the works of innovative architects.

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Katie Potter: This book has won numerous awards and starred reviews, and the back matter

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Katie Potter: as I mentioned before, with A Sky That Sings, many of our books have extensive backmatter that our editors and authors really work hard on making them robust, engaging, where you can find all of this additional, incredible information.

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Katie Potter: So in the back, there are, you can learn about all of the architect, all of the buildings and architects that are mentioned in the book, and paired alongside the children's construction or building of it.

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Katie Potter: So I am going to read aloud.

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Katie Potter: Blankets flung, stretch chair to chair. Soft roof arcs low, a cozy place, a hideaway where you and I can go.

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Katie Potter: One by one, block by block, plastic shapes interlock. Yellow, red, white, and black all connect in a stack.

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Katie Potter: Build a world, brick by brick. Hold them close. Hear the click.

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Katie Potter: Stick, touch like fingertips. Reach high where wishes roam.

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Katie Potter: Kept between is magic space and a forest fairy home.

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Katie Potter: So, the activity that I selected with this guide is in our School Home Connection. This is at the very end of our guide. They all have School Home Connections where you can extend the book learning with caregivers and family members at home or in any other setting. So, we invite

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Katie Potter: Students and children and their families and caregivers to find a structure in their own community and replicate that through their own building, accompanied by a poem or any other form of writing about

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Katie Potter: Who built the structure? What's it made of? So really kind of modeling what they observed and dreaming up, and extending it to their own community and world outside.

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Karly O'Brien: Before we move on, Katie, I just have to say, I'm such a sucker for real photographs, so this is one of my.

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Katie Potter: Favorite.

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Karly O'Brien: It's my favorite. I just love the… the illustration and side-by-side. I think it's such a powerful way to really make that connection, so…

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Katie Potter: So, Kristi Hale is the author and illustrator, and she's such a prolific creator. So, I also, in addition to Dreaming Up, she also has Copycat, which I don't know if you are familiar with. It's,

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Katie Potter: how different… it's… it's the concept of biomimicry, which is essentially how nature inspires solutions to real-life problems. So, it's really cool. I'll… I'll throw it in the chat. Yeah, please.

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Karly O'Brien: That's awesome.

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Katie Potter: It's, for example, like, how a cat's eyes…

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Katie Potter: Inspire the development of safety road reflectors because of the yellow brightness.

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Karly O'Brien: Mmm.

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Katie Potter: So, fascinating. It's… it's fascinating.

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Karly O'Brien: It's such an engaging technique, too.

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Katie Potter: Yeah.

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Karly O'Brien: I just love it. I couldn't go on without saying that.

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Katie Potter: exact same format as Dreaming Up, if anyone wants to take a look, too. So.

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Karly O'Brien: Thanks, Katie.

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Katie Potter: Okay, so the Doomsday Detectives, this… when I did the educator guide for this book, the amount that I learned… I have never learned so much from reading a book in my entire life. I… I was like, I literally have never…

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Katie Potter: engaged with this type of content about dinosaurs ever before. So as an adult, it was such a joy and pleasure to read this book.

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Katie Potter: And this is about father-son scientists Luis and Walter Alvarez, who pieced together one of the greatest mysteries of all time. What really happened to the dinosaurs? So this is a super fun, informative middle-grade nonfiction book.

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Katie Potter: And it outlines the many important scientific discoveries that aided the Alvarez's in their search for answers. So, this book combines graphic novel elements, which you see here, alongside narrative nonfiction. It has tons of historical

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Katie Potter: Photographs and illustrations, so it really presents the content in multiple modalities, so it's accessible for readers of all different levels.

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Katie Potter: And it's a wonderful book for summertime, where you can watch fun movies, or do what… go… if you're doing different museum trips, it's really a lovely book to pair alongside that kind of activity. So I'm not going to read this part, I'm just going to show you some of the excerpts.

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Katie Potter: And again, there's different sidebars, there are different call-out boxes, so this really taps into nonfiction learning. The author, Cindy Jensen Elliott, I collaborate… well, I collaborate with all of the authors on the teacher's guides.

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Katie Potter: But she is such an expert in this, of course, in this field. It's mind-blowing, this book.

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Katie Potter: And she is a middle school teacher herself.

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Katie Potter: So, I had to accommodate her classroom schedule when we were working on this, and it was just so fun. Cindy is wonderful, amazing, and this really, this is just such a,

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Katie Potter: it's a testament to her abilities as a writer and a teacher. The activity that I selected for this book

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Katie Potter: is actually, you know, I encourage you to check out the guide. There is so much information in the guide, especially if you're not as confident

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Katie Potter: like me, in dinosaurs. Really, I… you have to look at the guide before diving into the book, because it has such a wealth of information.

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Katie Potter: But this book also revealed so much well-being and social and emotional learning opportunities to engage with students in the classroom, because Walter and Luis

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Katie Potter: They experienced such a range of emotions and feelings during this process. Of course, anybody would, even scientists who are experts in their fields. They experienced a ton of disappointment in this book.

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Katie Potter: And kids in this age, in middle school, high school, upper elementary grades, they're really, for the first time in their lives, getting to know what disappointment

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Katie Potter: looks like. How do you deal with those feelings? So, go. Encouraging students to go through and find out when the scientists experienced disappointment. How did they recover? How did they persevere? What were some of the things that they did to rebound?

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Katie Potter: And then connecting it to students' own lives. How do you overcome disappointment, and what did you learn from this book, and how the scientists resolved their issues?

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Katie Potter: So that's, the Doomsday Detectives.

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Katie Potter: Back to you, Carly!

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Karly O'Brien: Cool! Thanks, Katie! Yeah, that last one, I'm gonna have to…

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Katie Potter: Yes, I…

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Karly O'Brien: I'm gonna have to research some of that.

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Katie Potter: But I don't think.

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Karly O'Brien: some background knowledge, that's, like, the key, that's the key right there. Background knowledge, that's why it's so important, because if you don't have it.

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Katie Potter: None of that.

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Karly O'Brien: I had…

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Katie Potter: None of that going in, and now I am an expert on dinosaurs.

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Karly O'Brien: Oh, I love it.

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Katie Potter: Oh, there you go.

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Karly O'Brien: Well, yeah, I'm gonna check it out, and I love the format, too, so thanks for sharing that one.

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Karly O'Brien: All right, and our final theme, for our program is called Artistic Adventures, and as you can imagine, it's a very art-related theme. So, for this theme, kids can explore stories about art, music, writing, dance, theater, other forms of creative expression. They can use what they read to create and showcase their learning in their own unique artistic way. So, just like the other themes, there are

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Karly O'Brien: there's a long list of book recommendations. Here are a couple of them. And then the project aligned, or the handout aligned to this, theme is to make your own badge. So you will see, when I do the demo of our summer program, it's a summer camp theme, and as you do activities, you earn badges. So by the time you go to the end of the summer for the final theme.

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Karly O'Brien: you get to make your own badge as the artistic, activity. So, it's a nice, ending to all of the things that they've been engaging in throughout the, throughout the summer so far, so…

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Karly O'Brien: Our final two book recommendations? Throwing it to you, Katie!

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Katie Potter: Great, thank you, Carly. Okay, so Little Melba and Her Big Trombone, I'm sure many of you have seen this book before. It's one of our best-selling titles, and one of our biggest award winners at Lee & Lowe Books. It's the winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honor.

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Katie Potter: It's also available in Spanish, so it's not a bilingual title, it has its own unique Spanish edition, so I encourage you to check that out if you also are looking for Spanish titles. So, Little Melba is a biography of African American jazz virtuoso Melba Dorita Liston, a pioneering 20th century trombone player, composer, and music arranger.

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Katie Potter: This is during a time when very few women, played brass instruments and were part of the jazz scene.

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Katie Potter: So it really… it celebrates the life and legacy of… of little Malva, who rose to fame at a time when women, again, were rarely seen in professional music performances. And it also taps into the joy of creating and performing music.

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Katie Potter: And so I'm going to read aloud.

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Katie Potter: Spread the word! Little Melba Doretta Liston was something special. The year she was born was 1926. The place was Kansas City, where you could reach out and feel the music. The avenues were lined with jazz clubs, street bands, and folks harmonizing on every corner.

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Katie Potter: All the hot music makers made sure they had a gig in KC.

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Katie Potter: From as far back as her memory would go, Melba loved the sounds of music. Blues, jazz, and gospel rhythms danced in her head. The plink of a guitar, the hum of a bass.

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Katie Potter: The thrum, thrum of a drum. The ping-pang of a piano. The tremble of a sweet horn.

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Katie Potter: Notes stirred and rhythms bubbled all through Melba's home. She couldn't get enough. Music was always on her mind.

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Katie Potter: She daydreamed about beats and lyrics.

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Katie Potter: Music was on Melva's mind at night, too, when she should have been fast asleep.

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Katie Potter: So, this really lends itself into listening to some of Melba's music. So, if you can, if it's possible to listen to the Melba Liston in Her Bones, which was originally released in 1958, and it's actually the only album that she's the lead artist on. You can have kids that you're working with, students, design a cover for the album, and then research some of the other songs and

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Katie Potter: Just have fun listening to music.

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Katie Potter: Which is just a great summertime activity.

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Katie Potter: And then the middle grade novel…

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Katie Potter: is, Bird. This is another award winner. This is a gentle, award-winning picture book about Bird.

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Katie Potter: And he uses drawing as a creative outlet as he struggles to make sense of his grandfather's death and his brother's drug addiction. This is for older readers, I would say middle and high school, but it's in a really accessible format. It's told in verse, with beautiful illustrations throughout. So I wanted to include a review from Booklist because it really encapsulates the essence of this book.

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Katie Potter: In this beautiful picture book for older readers, Elliot and Strickland tell a moving story in spare-free verse and clear mixed-media pictures of an African American boy who loves to draw.

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Katie Potter: The spacious scenes of the boy beneath birds soaring high above the city streets echoes what Bird discovers, that art can inspire, comfort, and elevate.

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Katie Potter: Today I saw a bird outside my window. It was perched on the rusty rail of the fire escape, shivering in the winter wind. I wanted to open my window and bring the bird inside where it was warm, but a sudden gust of wind blew the bird away. I drew a picture so I wouldn't forget.

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Katie Potter: Mama and Papa named me Makai, but Granddad calls me Bird. That's what he used to call me, anyway. Granddad passed about a year ago. Now that he's gone, his best friend Sonny looks out for me. I call him Uncle Son. He comes by once a week and takes me to the park.

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Katie Potter: Mostly, Uncle Son and I just sit on our usual bench, tossing stale bread to the pigeons.

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Katie Potter: Uncle Son says he likes talking to me, because I keep him on his toes.

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Katie Potter: I like talking to Uncle Son because he treats me like I'm grown, not like I'm some little kid who can't understand anything. Uncle Son tells me stories about Granddad, and all the daring missions they went on during the war.

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Katie Potter: Granddad and Uncle Son were pilots. They used to fly even higher than the birds. Uncle Son says flying a plane is the best feeling on Earth, except you're not on Earth, really. You're a part of the sky.

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Katie Potter: So the activity here, like Bird does in the story, mirroring his actions, encouraging students and kids to carry around their own sketchbooks and draw scenes of their neighborhood, their friends, their family, just really experimenting with observing the world around them and transforming them into art.

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Karly O'Brien: Thanks, Katie!

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Karly O'Brien: Thanks for all those wonderful, previews of those amazing stories. I hope you all enjoyed the little snippets, and please, like Katie mentioned, go to your local library, reach out to us if you want any recommendations, head to Lee & Lowe and support them as well. We're happy to help in any way that we can, but while we still have you here, a couple other resources wanted to spotlight before we

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Karly O'Brien: showed you the intro video to the summer, the summer program. So, the first one I wanted to highlight is, the resource about, learning through play. So, there's… it's divided into different types of camp members, so you have your junior Scout and your Elite Explorer, and it gives you a list of, low… low-lift materials aligned to the different stories.

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Karly O'Brien: That are featured throughout the book list, and some activities that you can engage with, at home with everyday materials. So, if you see on the left, there's some boxes, socks.

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Karly O'Brien: paper rolls, magazines, so very low prep, minimal resource, and just a way to get kids really, being hands-on and in their learning throughout the summer. So there's those recommendations for you there.

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Karly O'Brien: Like I mentioned earlier, it is a badge experience, so as you, complete more activities, you earn more badges, so besides all of those wonderful, book-specific activities, there's some other ones that I wanted to spotlight. The first one on the left, you might have seen me in the chat talk about Skybury a little bit. It is Riff's e-book platform, and it got a makeover the last year and now offers

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Karly O'Brien: free books. So, this list right here, gives you some recommendations of those 100 free books, which ones align to the summer themes, and, ways that you can access those books. So, if you're interested, head to skybray.org and you can learn more there.

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Karly O'Brien: And then the middle resource was developed in partnership with the American Association of School Librarians, and it is a fun s'mores reading scavenger hunt, so as you complete one of those activities, you would color in a marshmallow, and it's just another engaging way to track things that you're doing this summer. And then the last one on the right, you might have heard me mention during our intro that RIF is turning 60 this year.

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Karly O'Brien: So, of course, we have to have a RIF 60th Anniversary badge and activity. And those are some phonics and vocabulary activities aligned to popular books, from the last 60 years. So you'll see some popular ones, such as Rainbow Fish, Chrysanthemum. Hopefully, you'll feel a little nostalgic if you're a family member, digging through those titles. So, those are some extra activities.

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Karly O'Brien: And then two more things. The first one, there's an abundant amount of family resources that were developed in partnership with the National PTA, and these are tools that make it easy to help you build daily reading habits and keep kids engaged during the summer. So, on the left, if you are a teacher on this call and you want families to learn about the summer, it is a take-home letter on the left that is also available in

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Karly O'Brien: Spanish. Just tell us a little bit about the program and the resources that are available for free.

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Karly O'Brien: That middle resource is a summer reading planner, so it is a way for you to talk with your kiddos about your daily schedule and ways that you can incorporate literacy and reading throughout your morning, evening, and afternoon. And then on the right is a family tip sheet, so if you're a family member, feel free to download it and learn some things. If you're a teacher, feel free to share this directly with families, and that is also available.

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Karly O'Brien: available in Spanish.

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Karly O'Brien: And then, possibly my most… the most exciting, feature of the summer is, we partnered with author and engineer Jay Flores, and he, offers a read-aloud of his book, I'm an Engineer Someday, and it is available, in Spanish as well, so he reads aloud the story in multiple languages, and that will be available on our summer site,

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Karly O'Brien: to watch and download all summer, so feel free to check that out. He's wonderful, very engaging, and has been a really awesome partner,

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Karly O'Brien: For Riff, so. Thanks, Jay, if you're out there.

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Karly O'Brien: And then 3 other resources wanted to spotlight. I'm gonna start with the one on the right, because that's a RIF resource, and then I'm going to throw it back to Katie if you want to evaluate, elaborate on the other two, but all the way on the right, is, we have a lot of family-friendly blogs, one of them specifically around summer reading that's launching later this week, but, if you're ever interested in reading more about, topics in the literacy space, feel free to

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Karly O'Brien: check that out. And there's also links to our different podcast episodes that, are available as well. So that is just… if you head to Riff.org and head to our blog section, you will see all of those, all of those there.

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Katie Potter: Yeah, so really… thank you, Carly. So really quickly, we have a guide to reading at home with children, so this is an English and Spanish bilingual resource.

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Katie Potter: It's… it's two-sided. One side is in English and one side is in Spanish, about how to read with your child, different questions that you can ask generally for different… all different kinds of books.

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Katie Potter: And then questions to ask… ask yourself as well. And then, we have our diverse summer reading list that has lots of books in our different series that we have, and then some other recommended titles to read over the summer.

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Karly O'Brien: Great, thanks, Katie, and those things will be linked in the follow-up email as well, so feel free to reach out to us if you have any issue accessing anything.

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Karly O'Brien: And then, last but not least, wanted to end us on the, fun little intro to the campaign, video that we have created, and it is put on by, I believe she's on the call, Camp Counselor Lauren, my lovely colleague. And if you head to riff.org slash summer, it will take you to our summer page, so…

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Karly O'Brien: At a very quick glance, it's divided into different categories based on the grade and age ranges, so you can explore the different book celebrations there, excuse me, the book lists there.

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Karly O'Brien: There's a summer reading challenge going on. If you're interested in taking the challenge, you can possibly get a free book out of it. And then, as you come back, each

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Karly O'Brien: month, a new theme and badge will launch. So, for May, you will see everything related to Reading Explorers, and then if you come back in June, you will see the STEM resources, and then if you come back in July, you will see the Artistic Adventures resources. So, they will never go away, they will just keep adding on. So you can always see the previous badges, but it's just a way to have something to look forward to every… every month.

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Karly O'Brien: To have some new activities, and…

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Karly O'Brien: And really space them out appropriately.

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Karly O'Brien: And then here are downloadable, all the other things we talked about. So, thought it would be fun to watch this video. It's about a minute and a half, so not very long, but very engaging. And then, we will wrap up from there.

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Audio shared by Karly O'Brien: Hi, Camper!

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Audio shared by Karly O'Brien: I'm your camp counselor, Lauren, and welcome to RIF Reading Summer Camp 2026! This summer, you'll have the chance to earn 3 badges, along with some extra bonus badges to complete the Summer Reading Challenge. Click on your cabin to find books just right for you.

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Audio shared by Karly O'Brien: In each cabin, you'll find books for all three badges. Reading Explorers, STEM Stars, and Artistic Avenues. Each row has 4 books that will inspire you to build, create.

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Audio shared by Karly O'Brien: And enjoy all summer long. Check back each month as the next badge will unlock, allowing you to view the completing challenge.

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Audio shared by Karly O'Brien: To earn the Reading Explorers Badge, read stories about exploration, adventures, and follow characters that embark on exciting quests. Completing this badge means making it through the Hidden Jungle obstacle course to find the Lost Academy. All of this while reading.

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Audio shared by Karly O'Brien: See ya next month! Join the Rift City!

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Karly O'Brien: Thanks, Lauren. I know you're on this call, so thank you for that amazing video. I'm gonna put you on the spot. Lauren was a camp counselor her whole life, so she was made for this, so thanks, Lauren, for all of your amazing work on…

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Karly O'Brien: On this, this site, so I'm really excited for it to be live and in the hands of everyone. So, with that, oh, thank you all so, so much, and huge thank you to you, Katie. This has been so fun planning it with you. It's always so fun working with you, so I'm really excited

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Karly O'Brien: Thank you, Chris.

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Katie Potter: Carly, like…

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Karly O'Brien: You're so welcome.

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Katie Potter: And we are always hap… we always love collaborating with RIF, so thank you so much. You do such incredible summer programming. And yes, please, everyone, reach out. If you have any questions about the books, go to your local library, go to RIF, they have… also have wonderful educator resources to pair alongside our books. So, thank you, Carly!

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Karly O'Brien: Yeah, thanks, Katie, so much, and thank you all for your time, we really appreciate it, and always reach out to us if you need anything, and be on the lookout for the recording, and have a great rest of your afternoon, and Katie will be in touch, for sure.

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Katie Potter: Okay, thank you!