Read and Succeed
The Office of Academic Supports is excited to announce a district-wide reading initiative for all third-grade students to read 20 books in 20 weeks!
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Strengthen Your Child’s Reading
Third-grade readers are learning to read longer words more smoothly—and to reread when they've made a mistake. Your encouragement and support is key to helping them move past reading challenges to be more confident readers. Watch the video for tips on supporting your third-grade reader!
Need Support? Email AskTerica@scholastic.com
Help Your Third Grader Complete the 20 in 20 Reading Initiative
Philadelphia students and teachers will track their progress toward reading 20 books by April 24, 2023. Students who successfully complete the 20 in 20 Reading Initiative will receive an incentive and have their names entered in a raffle for a chance to win a grand prize. Use the resources below to participate in the reading initiative.
Self-Awareness
These books will help you build your child’s self-esteem and self-confidence through conversation. Use the "Ask and Share" questions to discuss personal connections with your child—and share your own! Plus, download the activities to spark your child’s creativity.
Cambiar a los libros en español.
Book 1: Looking Like Me
+ Talking Tips
Description
As Jeremy goes about his day, he thinks about everything that makes him unique. He discovers that he is a son, brother, artist, dreamer, runner, and much more. He also realizes his strong connections with his community and his family.
Talking Tips
Part One (Pages 1–8)
- Important Moment: Jeremy is a student to his teacher and a little brother to his sister.
- Ask and Share: Who are YOU to all of the important people in your life? Do you have to change how you behave with the different people in your life? How?
Part Two (Pages 9–13)
- Important Moment: Jeremy says:
“I’m a city child.
I love the dizzy heights,
the concrete, the steel,
the bright neon lights.” - Ask and Share: Can YOU make a rhyme to describe yourself and/or the place you’re from?
Part Three (Pages 14–18)
- Important Moment: So far, we’ve learned that Jeremy is a writer, a poet, an artist, and a dancer.
- Ask and Share: What are some of the ways YOU show your creativity? What kinds of creative things would you like to try?
Part Four (Pages 19–27)
- Important Moment: Jeremy encourages you to have your own “I Am” Jam—making a list of all the interesting things YOU are.
- Ask and Share: Why do you think Jeremy encourages this? Try creating an “I Am” Jam of your own!
Part Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 2: The Used-to-Be Best Friend
+ Talking Tips
Description
Jo Jo Makoons Azure is a spirited seven-year-old who moves through the world a little differently than anyone else on her Ojibwe reservation. Now Jo Jo must figure out what to do when Fern, her best friend at school, may not want to be friends anymore.
Talking Tips
Day One (Chapters 1–2)
- Important Moment: Jo Jo’s moushoom (translation: grandpa) chose the name Makoons (translation: bear cub) for her because she growled and had short black hair like a bear when she was a baby.
- Ask and Share: What's a name someone could give you based on your personality and physical characteristics? Is there a story or special meaning that goes along with YOUR name?
Day Two (Chapters 3–4)
- Important Moment: When Jo Jo messes up her first attempt at making rhyming pairs in class, her face gets hot and red, her tummy gets “roll-y up and down,” and her lip quivers.
- Ask and Share: How do you think she’s feeling? Why is trying new things sometimes difficult? Is it OK to mess up? Why?
Day Three (Chapters 5–6)
- Important Moment: Jo Jo and her classmates have been invited to make pictures for the school yearbook. Her teacher says the pictures should capture fun experiences and memories from the year.
- Ask and Share: If you were given the same task, what memory or experience would you choose to share? Why? What would be in your picture?
Day Four (Chapters 7–8)
- Important Moment: Jo Jo is upset her cat Mimi has already left for a vet appointment. She says, “I didn’t get to give her a hug to be brave. That is what best friends do.”
- Ask and Share: If your friend isn’t nearby and you need to be brave, what are some things you can do?
Day Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 3: Juana & Lucas
+ Talking Tips
Description
Juana loves many things: drawing; living in Bogotá, Colombia; and especially her dog, Lucas. She does not love wearing her itchy school uniform, solving math problems, or learning English—until she is presented with a trip to the US to meet her hero.
Talking Tips
Day One (Chapters 1–3)
- Important Moment: Juana says Juli is a very good friend. The two sit together on the bus, laugh a lot, and have tons to talk about. Plus, Juli shares her treats with Juana!
- Ask and Share: What are some of the things you like in a friend? What are some of the ways you can be a good friend to someone?
Day Two (Chapters 4–6)
- Important Moment: Juana says her dog Lucas is the only cure for a horrible day.
- Ask and Share: What do you think she means by that? What are some of the things YOU do to cheer yourself up if you’ve had a bad day?
Day Three (Chapters 7–8)
- Important Moment: Juana says that when she talks about her problems with her grandfather, Abue (short for Abuelo), they melt away like chocolate.
- Ask and Share: Why do you think it’s helpful to talk about problems with someone you trust? What are some other things you can try when you have a tough problem to solve?
Day Four (Chapters 9–11)
- Important Moment: After visiting the United States, Juana feels inspired to travel more—to meet new friends and learn new languages!
- Ask and Share: If you could travel to a new place anywhere in the world, where would you go? What would you do there? Would you meet new friends or learn words in a new language?
Day Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 4: Mountain Mission
+ Talking Tips
Description
Russell and his team are in a race in the Himalayas, one of the most dangerous mountain ranges in the world. When a rockslide threatens an old friend, Russell and the team must decide whether to go on a rescue mission or race for the win.
Talking Tips
Day One (Chapters 1–3)
- Important Moment: When the team realizes they have more supplies and equipment than they can carry, Russell offers to strap the extra to his already heavy pack.
- Ask and Share: What does this say about Russell and his character? What are some of the characteristics you have that make YOU a good team member?
Day Two (Chapters 4–6)
- Important Moment: Russell has trouble making sense of the points tally. He says the chart looks like “Super Extra Advanced Algebra.” (See the tally on page 76.)
- Ask and Share: How would you start if a problem feels a bit tough to understand? Which of your strategies would you recommend to Russell?
Day Three (Chapters 7–8)
- Important Moment: Russell feels confused about whether he and Dallas are still friends.
- Ask and Share: Why does Russell feel confused? If you were Russell, would you think of Dallas as your friend? Why?
Day Four (Chapters 9–10)
- Important Moment: Russell’s team used strengths like leadership, tech skills, kindness, knowledge, and ambition to win the race.
- Ask and Share: Is an outdoor race how you would want to use your strengths and build your skills? Is there another way you would like to challenge yourself?
Day Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 5: Big Foot and Little Foot
+ Talking Tips
Description
Hugo is a young Sasquatch who longs for adventure. Boone is a young boy who longs to see a Sasquatch. Big Foot and Little Foot explore the ins and outs of each other’s very different worlds but learn that, deep down, maybe they’re not so different after all.
Talking Tips
Day One (Chapters 1–5)
- Important Moment: Hugo thinks he’d be terrified if he saw a human, but when he sees one for the first time, he’s surprised to find that he’s not scared at all.
- Ask and Share: Can you think of a time you felt nervous before a new experience (examples: first day of school, trying a new skill, meeting a new friend)? What happened? Were your feelings different before and after?
Day Two (Chapters 6–10)
- Important Moment: Hugo carves a tiny sasquatch out of wood. It has little fingers and toes, plus hair and a face that looks just like Hugo’s.
- Ask and Share: If you carved a tiny version of yourself, which features would you include so that it looked just like you?
Day Three (Chapters 11–16)
- Important Moment: In preparation for the Frog Moon Festival, Mrs. Nukluk asks her students to create scary masks from bark, river clay and materials collected from the woods. Hugo decides to make a shark mask.
- Ask and Share: If you were in Hugo’s class, what kind of mask would you make? How would you design it? Which materials would you use to make it?
Day Four (Chapters 17–22)
- Important Moment: Boone and Hugo discover they had some wrong information about each other.
- Ask and Share: What are some things humans and sasquatches think they know about each other? How do Hugo and Boone become friends despite (deciding not to worry about) these things? What message is the story sharing with readers?
Day Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Confronting Challenges
These books will help your child build resilience and respond proactively to challenges. Use the “Ask and Share” questions to discuss personal connections with your child—and share your own! Plus, download the activities to spark your child’s creativity.
Book 6: Manjhi Moves a Mountain
+ Talking Tips
Description
Manjhi lives on one side of a mountain, where nothing grows. Using a hammer and chisel over twenty years, he is determined to carve a path through the mountain from his poor village to a sister village with water, jobs, health care, and education.
Talking Tips
Part One (Pages 1–7)
- Important Moment: Manjhi walks to the top of the mountain and compares the villages on either side.
- Ask and Share: How does Manjhi feel at the beginning of the story? How do you know? How would you feel in this situation?
Part Two (Pages 8–15)
- Important Moment: Manjhi works to split the mountain in half with his hammer and chisel day after day, night after night.
- Ask and Share: Why do you think Manjhi is working so hard? What’s something you’ve worked really hard on, or something you want to work really hard on?
Part Three (Pages 16–22)
- Important Moment: As the years pass, Manjhi makes progress on the hole in the mountain.
- Ask and Share: How do the villagers feel about Manjhi now? Why do you think their opinions changed? Did your opinion of him change?
Part Four (Pages 23–28)
- Important Moment: After 22 years, Manjhi finishes splitting the mountain, giving his village access to water, jobs, and healthcare!
- Ask and Share: How do you think Manjhi felt when he finally reached his goal? Why? How do you feel about his story?
Part Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 7: Kids Who Are Changing the World
+ Talking Tips
Description
Have you ever wondered what you could do to change the world? Find out how kids are helping the environment, inventing incredible medical devices, aiding the homeless, designing apps so other kids won’t ever have to eat alone in the cafeteria, and more!
Talking Tips
Day One (Chapter 1)
- Important Moment: Jahkil creates supply bags for homeless people in his community.
- Ask and Share: How do you think we as a family could help people in our community?
Day Two (Chapter 2)
- Important Moment: After being bullied, Natalie invents an app that helps kids find other kids to sit with at lunch.
- Ask and Share: Have you ever experienced kids not letting others sit with them at lunch? How did you handle it? Did this chapter give you some new ideas for what to do?
Day Three (Chapter 3)
- Important Moment: Gitanjali creates a device that can detect lead in water, inspired by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
- Ask and Share: What do you think it would be like to not have clean water? What do you imagine your day would be like?
Day Four (Chapter 4)
- Important Moment: Joris raises money and donates his time to help endangered cheetahs.
- Ask and Share: Joris raises money for an issue he cares about. What issue or problem would you want to raise money to help solve?
Day Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 8: Mia Mayhem vs. the Super Bully
+ Talking Tips
Description
Mia, an eight-year-old superhero, is excited about her first superspeed training class at THE PITS, but a bully on her relay team accuses Mia of not belonging, leading her to lose her shadow and, worse, to snap at her friends.
Talking Tips
Day One (Chapters 1–2)
- Important Moment: Mia enters her new school for the first time.
- Ask and Share: How do you think Mia is feeling? Why? What advice would you give her?
Day Two (Chapters 3–5)
- Important Moment: Hugo is unkind to his teammates after they lose the relay race.
- Ask and Share: Have you ever had to work with someone who is acting rude like Hugo? What did you do?
Day Three (Chapters 6–7)
- Important Moment: Mia snaps at Allie and Penn while they help her look for her shadow.
- Ask and Share: Why do you think Mia acts that way to her friends when they are trying to help her? Have you ever been unkind to someone when you were feeling frustrated or upset?
Day Four (Chapters 8–10)
- Important Moment: Mia and her team win the contest.
- Ask and Share: Why are Mia and her team able to win? What lessons do you think they learn?
Day Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 9: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
+ Talking Tips
Description
When fourteen-year-old William’s village in Malawi was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. With only a pile of books and scraps from the junkyard, William built a functioning windmill, bringing electricity and irrigation to his village and its crops.
Talking Tips
Part One (Pages 1–6; page ending with “You’ll cut off your own foot”)
- Important Moment: William daydreams while he helps his family work in the fields.
- Ask and Share: How do you think William’s dreaming might be helpful? Do you ever come up with new ideas while daydreaming?
Part Two (Pages 7–14; page ending with “I will build electric wind.”)
- Important Moment: William reads about windmills and thinks a windmill could help his village.
- Ask and Share: What do you think William is going to need to achieve his goal?
Part Three (Pages 15–20; page ending with “Some giggled, others teased…”)
- Important Moment: Many villagers laugh as William builds his windmill from objects he found in the junkyard.
- Ask and Share: Why do you think William’s neighbors don’t believe in his idea? How do you think William feels about that?
Part Four (Pages 21–30; end of author’s note)
- Important Moment: William’s first windmill makes electricity! William later builds water pumps to help crops grow.
- Ask and Share: What kind of invention do you think would help people who live in our community?
Part Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Book 10: Vera Vance, Comics Star
+ Talking Tips
Description
Vera loves comics, so she can’t wait for her comics class to start. Her mother has doubts, but Vera is determined to participate. She is proud to develop her own comic with the encouragement of her friend Nixie and instruction from teachers.
Talking Tips
Day One (Chapters 1–2)
- Important Moment: Vera is nervous about learning to draw during her first day of comics camp.
- Ask and Share: Have you ever felt nervous about learning something new like Vera? What did you tell yourself so that you could keep going?
Day Two (Chapters 3–5)
- Important Moment: Vera doesn’t tell Nixie she wants to work by herself instead of with a partner.
- Ask and Share: Why do you think Vera doesn’t tell Nixie this? How would you tell your friend if you felt that way?
Day Three (Chapters 6–8)
- Important Moment: James tells Boogie and Nolan he is sorry about his mean comic.
- Ask and Share: Vera thinks that James’s apology isn’t very good. What do you think makes a good apology?
Day Four (Chapters 9–10)
- Important Moment: Vera shares her Little Spoon comic with her mom to show how much she wants to go to comic-con.
- Ask and Share: Why do you think Vera stands up for what she wants at the end of the book? Have you ever stood up for something you wanted to do?
Day Five
- Get Creative: Download this book’s activity for your child.
Download All Activities
Make Your Home a Reading Home
Families are the key to children’s reading success. Here are some easy, powerful ways to support your child with their reading!
Try to build in 20 minutes of reading together with your child each day.
This might be just after school or right before bed.
Find a comfy spot, and enjoy this time together!
Encourage your child to read by helping them feel good about themselves as a reader.
1) Notice when your child is reading and celebrate their efforts.
2) Ask them questions about what they are reading so they know you are interested.
Third-grade readers are learning to:
1) Read words with multiple syllables.
2) Read smoothly and with expression.
3) Reread words or sentences when they make a mistake.
Have your child read aloud to you to hear them practice these skills.
Children should be able to give examples from the book to answer a question or to explain an opinion. As you read together:
1) Ask your child a question about what a particular character is like.
2) Then, ask them to point to specific examples in the book.
Encourage your child to bring along a book anytime you know they might have a few extra minutes to read. Reading can be a great distraction while running errands with you or traveling from place to place, and these short moments add up to a lot of reading!
When children show hesitation about reading, you might offer a trip to the library to find books that interest them.
If they seem worried about making mistakes while reading, show them that it’s okay—that is how we learn!
Tip 1
Online Reading Fun
After your child finishes these ten books, check out more books online at Scholastic BookFlix. Free for Philadelphia residents with a library card!
Visit BookFlix
Check out this free, safe, monitored website where your child can interact with favorite characters and authors, play book-related games, make comics, and discover new books.
Visit Home Base
Families and Educators:
Chance to Win a $25 Gift Card!
You have important insights into children’s literacy. Help us learn from you by completing this survey—and you’ll have a chance to win $25!
TAKE SURVEY
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Fully completed surveys must be received by 3/3/23 in order to be eligible. Prize: $25 American Express gift card. Ten (10) winners will be selected at random from among all eligible family surveys received and ten (10) winners will be selected at random from among all eligible educator surveys received. Promotion is open only to survey recipients age 18 or older and who teach grade 3 or who are the parent or legal guardian of a child in grade 3, who are residents of the United States (one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia), and who have reviewed the My Books Every Day program materials provided as part of the 20 in 20 Reading Initiative. See Official Rules: scholastic.com/surveygiftcardrules
