MRA Café-Coffee and Conversations
Welcome to the July updates of the Massachusetts Reading Association. MRA Café is a monthly publication that connects our members, inspires joyful collegiality, shares insights into literacy education, and celebrates success stories.
July Reading Challenge
The Boyden Library (click here for more information) has provided the following July reading challenge book list! How many can you read this month?
Call for Submissions
The MRA Beacon: Journal of Literacy and Learning is seeking research or articles that highlight ways to extend literacy learning beyond the walls of the classroom and into the community at-large. The deadline to submit for the 2024 edition is August 1, 2025. See this link for more details and manuscript guidelines.
2026 MRA Conference on the Horizon
Save the date for the 55th Annual Massachusetts Reading Conference, Literacy and Learning: Connection Classrooms and Communities, to be held April 9-10, 2026, at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel in Newton, MA.
We are excited to let you know that the 2026 Call for Session and Author Proposal Forms are available. Please submit by July 15, 2025.
MRA Scholarship Spotlight
Do you have a plan for conducting ACTION RESEARCH in your educational setting?
Sylvia D. Brown Scholarship
The MRA invites you to submit a proposal for the Sylvia D. Brown Scholarship. Proposals are due on January 31, 2026, and must be submitted electronically as a Word document to the Sylvia D. Brown committee chair. A three-to-five-page detailed description of the Action research project must be submitted. At least one of the participants in the project must be a member of MRA. Each participant must submit a Participant’s Information Form and a professional resume.
A sample proposal, information brochure and forms are available on the MRA website: https://www.massreading.org/sylvia-d-brown-scholarship
Huge thank you to Jan Brett!
Jan Brett drew Varing Hare Snowshoe from Alice in a Winter Wonderland at the 2025 Conference in front of a live audience. Her drawing remains with the organization.
Upcoming Events and Programming
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Join us at Brookline Booksmith for an all-ages event to celebrate Critters of Massachusetts with author Alex Troutman.
RSVP to let us know you're coming! Depending on the volume of responses, an RSVP may be required for entrance to the event. In the event that we reach capacity and have to close RSVPs, there will not be a waiting list.
Get your copy!
EVENT ATTENDEES: Preorder your copy of Critters of Massachusetts through this page. Books will also be available for purchase at the event. Books can be picked up after 6:30PM on the day of the event in the event space.
CAN'T MAKE IT TO THE EVENT? Preorder the book here to have it signed, and choose to have it held for pickup or shipped from the store!
Book orders are processed for pickup or shipping after ticket sales have closed.
Date
July 01, 2025
Time
5:00pm - 6:00pm (EDT)
Location
Brookline Booksmith
279 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA 02446
Brookline, MA US
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Join Regina Linke in a special presentation of Big Enough and its beautiful illustrations, where she’ll guide the audience through the emotional journey of a young boy and his misunderstood charge, the large family ox.
Book signing to follow program. Can’t make the event? You may reserve signed books online.
Regina Linke
Regina Linke is a Taiwanese American author and illustrator specializing in ancient Chinese gongbi-style painting using digital media. She’s best known for her characters from The Oxherd Boy, a heart-opening webcomic that brings ancient Chinese brush painting with wisdom inspired by East Asian philosophy.
Date
July 05, 2025
Time
11:00am - 11:30am (EDT)
Location
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
125 West Bay Road, Amherst, MA 01002
Amherst, MA US
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Join us for the very first Ashland Library Young Artists Comics Fest! Celebrate comics and graphic novels with local creators exhibiting alongside Young Artists ages 8-18 who are making comics! We welcome attendees 8 and up to make comics of their own in our many workshops led by cartoonists and educators.
Ashland Library 66 Front St. Ashland, MA
JULY 13, 2025
10am - 5pm -
Although Readercon is modeled on general "science fiction conventions," we feature a near-total focus on the written word.
In many years the list of Readercon guests rivals or surpasses that of the Worldcon in quality. Readercon is the only small convention regularly attended by such giants of imaginative literature as Samuel R. Delany, Ellen Datlow, Amal El-Mohtar, John Crowley, Greer Gilman, and Catherynne M. Valente.
The program consists of two tracks each of panel discussions, author readings, and solo talks or workshops, plus kaffeeklatsches (intimate gatherings with an author), autograph signings, and extracurricular activities. The program also currently features the presentation of two major genre awards: the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award for a neglected author and the Shirley Jackson Awards for dark fantasy and psychological suspense.
There is a large Bookshop full of new, used, and rare, and collectible books & magazines (and yet more great conversation; if a Readercon attendee is not at a program item, they're probably here).
There's more. We publish a Souvenir Book whose pages of content rival a Worldcon's in number, and a separate, comprehensive Program Guide. There is a hospitality suite well-stocked with munchies; and, yes, there are parties. Readercon is also proud to host a number of charitable efforts.
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You’re invited to join us online with award-winning author Rex Ogle as he talks to viewers about his struggles to navigate sixth grade as written about in his book Free Lunch.
Instead of giving him lunch money, Rex’s mom has signed him up for free meals. As a poor kid in a wealthy school district, better-off kids crowd impatiently behind him as he tries to explain to the cashier that he’s on the free meal program. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout.
Free Lunch is the story of Rex’s efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade—who to sit with, not being able to join the football team, Halloween in a handmade costume, classmates and a teacher who take one look at him and decide he’s trouble—all while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. His mom and her boyfriend are out of work, and life at home is punctuated by outbursts of violence. Halfway through the semester, his family is evicted and ends up in government-subsidized housing in view of the school. Rex lingers at the end of last period every day until the buses have left, so no one will see where he lives.
Unsparing and realistic, Free Lunch is a story of hardship threaded with hope and moments of grace. Rex’s voice is compelling and authentic, and Free Lunch is a true, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America. Register now to join the conversation!
About the Author: Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; Punching Bag, a New York Public Library Best Book; Abuela Don’t Forget Me, finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; and Road Home, which received a Printz Honor and a Stonewall Book Award Honor. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Date
July 23, 2025
Time
4:00pm - 5:00pm (EDT)
Online Event!
Congratulations to our Mini- Grants Recipients
These mini-grants provide funding to support creative programs and projects that foster reading development, community engagement, and lifelong learning. From book distribution events and author visits to family literacy nights and student-led reading initiatives, the selected proposals reflect the mission of MRA to advance literacy for all learners.
This year’s mini-grant recipients include:
Nobscot Reading Council for their project “Project Just Because”, which provided funds to purchase school supplies and backpacks for students in preschool through grade 12 in order to help students prepare for school and assist families in times of their greatest need.
Cape Cod Reading Council for their project “National Youth Leadership Advanced Medical and Healthcare Camp”, which provided funds to an individual who had been selected to attend the National Youth Leadership Advanced Medical and Healthcare Camp in July 2025. Cape Cod Reading Council donated their Minigrant funds to help this individual reach his goal.
Southeast Regional Reading Council for their project “Books at Buttonwood” which provided funds to host an event at Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford in which readers would be stationed at various animal attractions and would read a fictional story based on that particular animal. Coloring pages were also distributed to build a coloring book for each child.
The Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators for their project “Books on the Go for Summer Reading” which provided take-home book bags with at least two books in every bag for each second grade student at the Galligan School in Taunton, Massachusetts for summer reading.
Through these grants, the Massachusetts Reading Association affirms its commitment to supporting educators and literacy leaders across the Commonwealth. MRA applauds the creativity, dedication, and passion of its local councils in making a lasting impact on readers of all ages.
For more information about MRA’s mini-grant program or to learn more about how your council can get involved, please visit https://www.massreading.org/local-council-mini-grants .
Thank you for your dedication to literacy. Together, we can ensure every student becomes a confident and capable reader, writer, and learner.
MRA information
The Massachusetts Reading Association is a professional non-profit organization of individuals whose primary purpose is to improve the quality and level of literacy in the state of Massachusetts. The MRA is affiliated with the International Literacy Association (ILA), a worldwide literacy organization. Our Mission The mission of the Massachusetts Reading Association is to promote literacy for all learners through professional development, research, publications, and advocacy.
