MRA Café-Coffee and Conversations
Welcome to the June 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.
June Reading Challenge
Brighter Day Press (click here for more information) has provided the following June reading challenge book list! Take the challenge and read each book for each day in June!
Donald L. Landry Award
The Donald L. Landry Student Awards were established to encourage students to become active members of professional organizations, particularly MRA. The award was named after Donald Landry to honor his many years of service to MRA as President and Executive Treasurer. Student Applicants must be enrolled in an Educational Program in MA at the undergraduate or graduate levels and write an essay, responding to a prompt, which a committee scores.
Recipients receive: Full Conference Registration, meals, and lodging, and an annual MRA Student Membership.
The Donald L. Landry Student Awards were presented on April 10, 2026, at MRA’s 55th Annual Conference. Pictured left to right: Landry Graduate Award Recipient Caitlin Imparato, Student Membership Representative Lilyanna Bain, Landry Undergraduate Award Recipient Lucia Rachel Shpuntoff.
Spotlight on Local Councils
On Thursday, May 7, 2026, Nobscot Reading Council hosted David A. Kelly, author of the Ballpark Mysteries series, and Nobscot’s Celebrate Literacy Nominee, Laura Brillant-Giangrande, a youth services librarian at Bancroft Memorial Library in Hopedale. Since 2023, she has proactively started family events, book clubs, and other age-appropriate activities at the library. Book circulation has increased 42% since starting. What an inspiring way to celebrate Nobscot Reading Council’s impact on literacy!
David A. Kelly, Laura Brillant-Giangrande
On Saturday, May 9, 2026, Southeast Regional Reading Council (SERRC) hosted its second annual Books at Buttonwood Zoo. SERRC partnered with Buttonwood Park Zoo, local libraries from New Bedford, Mattapoisett, and the Elizabeth Taber Library in Marion to celebrate early childhood literacy. Volunteer readers shared stories with children, along with interactive tables offering activities, resources, and ideas to help spark a love of reading in children. Families were able to connect with local literacy experts and discover programs and services available in their community.
Upcoming Events and Programming
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VIRTUAL! Join author and former classroom teacher Megan Litwin to explore the layers within picture books and the countless profound ways they can impact classrooms and students of all ages.
Workshop - $15 includes GBC Annual Membership
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Join us to discuss the work of MACURE literacy scholars. 10 AM-12 Noon.
Morse Institute Library, 14 East Central Street, Natick, MA
Members Free; Nonmembers $10
Educator Surveys
1.) Research Project on Student and Teacher Voice
At the Massachusetts Reading Association's 55th Annual Conference, our children’s literature award winner, Carmen Agra Deedy, urged us all to tell our stories because our voice and our students' voices matter. Inspired by her call to action, Patricia (right) is researching student and teacher voices and would love your input! Share your (anonymous) voice by completing the short survey:
Click Here to Complete Survey
2.) Using Linguistically Diverse Picture Books about Asian and Asian American Experiences in Your Classroom
Purpose: While linguistically diverse books are increasingly recognized as critical pedagogical resources that benefit all students, scholarly attention to these resources has only recently intensified, and their practical application in classrooms is just beginning to gain recognition (Botelho & Marion, 2023; Moses, 2023). In this study, we investigate how Asian languages and English are used in translanguaging picturebooks for children. Translanguaging is the process by which multilingual speakers integrate their various linguistic repertoires and resources into one integrated system for communicating and making meaning (García & Wei, 2014). Whereas notions of codeswitching draw a line between different languages as separate systems, translanguaging acknowledges the dynamic fluidity among various languages that multilingual speakers engage in everyday communication (García, 2013). We define translanguaging picture books, therefore, as books that fluidly move among various languages to convey the main context of the text in both words and images (Enriquez, et al., forthcoming). Our study examines not just how translanguaging is employed in picture books, but also how they reinforce or challenge existing power dynamics between these languages, and what affordances they provide for teachers and multilingual readers to engage their full linguistic repertoires for meaning-making.
Our research questions are the following::
In what ways do award-winning Asian and Asian American picturebooks incorporate heritage languages and translanguaging practices?
What patterns of heritage language use emerge across textual, visual, and peritextual modes, and how do these modes interact to construct multilingual representation?
How do these representations reflect the lived multilingual realities of Asian and Asian American children?
What are the personal reader responses and pedagogical reflections of early childhood and elementary teachers upon reading these picturebooks?
Thank you for your dedication to literacy. Together, we can ensure every student becomes a confident and capable reader, writer, and learner.
3.) Invitation to Participate in a Study on Literacy Curriculum Adaptations
Dr. Christine Leighton is a faculty member in the School of Education at Emmanuel College. She is part of a teacher educator team inviting you to participate in a nationwide study focused on K–6 literacy instruction. The purpose of this study is to better understand how literacy teachers adapt curriculum to support culturally relevant pedagogy.
If you are a K-6 Literacy Teacher, your participation would involve completing an approximately 15-minute online survey about your experiences and instructional decisions. If you are one of the first 100 respondents to complete the survey, you will receive a $10 electronic gift card after completing the survey. At the end of the survey, you will have the option to indicate interest in a follow-up conversation via Zoom for approximately 45-60 minutes. If you are one of the first 15 participants to choose to participate in this follow-up interview, you will receive an additional $15 electronic gift card. All participation is voluntary.
To participate, please follow the link below. Once you click the link, you will be able to review the consent form before deciding whether to take part in the study: Consent to Participate and Survey
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.