Mighty Summer Reading
We’re about to hit summer weather with a vengeance.
Here in Philly, where they say it’s not the heat but the humidity (though we all know it’s both), the best way to cope with July and August is to get lost in a very good book.
That goes for grown-ups and Mighty ones alike.
There’s a serious side to the subject of summer reading, too.
“In educating myself this spring about education,” wrote Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times this Sunday, “I was aghast to learn that American children drop in I.Q. each summer vacation—because they aren’t in school or exercising their brains.”
Kristof says this is less true of middle-class students (who often go to summer programs and camps), but poor kids fall two months behind in reading level each summer break—and that, he says, “accounts for much of the difference in learning trajectory between rich and poor students.”
His central lesson: “Pry your kids away from the keyboard and the television this summer, and get them reading… ”
One way to do that, of course, is to enroll your child in a Mighty Writers Summer Workshop. Our workshops are free, and if you call us at 267.239.0899, or email us at contact@mightywriters.org, we can tell what classes we have and where spots may be available.
As for the Mighty baseball player at the top of this page, his name is Josh Gibson, and he was a major star in the Negro Leagues. This drawing of Gibson, by Kadir Nelson, is the cover art for his book on the Negro Leagues called “We Are the Ship.”
It’s a fun summer read, filled with history and loaded with big powerful pictures of baseball heroes past. Mighty Writers gives it four stars!
Whatever your literary taste, our hope for the summer is that everyone will grab a good book and stay very still.
Do that and you’ll be cool in all kinds of ways.
