Tag Archives: reading

Happy Take Your Child to the Library Day 2026!

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That’s right, book lovers young and old, it’s the return of Take Your Child to the Library Day.

Founded in 2011 by librarians Nadine Lipman and Caitlin Augusta, this annual event is held the first Saturday in February and encourages librarians to reach out to their communities and show folks just how wonderful reading can be.

Before the Internet, libraries were the source for information and reading, and these days they can use our support. So head out now, introduce your children to that big brick building with all the free books to borrow, update the library card that’s been stuck in the back of your wallet for all these years, and renew your acquaintance with a vital partner in the ongoing literacy campaign.

For more information, including the list of participating libraries, visit the TYCLDwebsite.

Banned Books Week 2025 Starts Tomorrow

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Got a favorite book? Well, odds are good there’s someone out there in the United States who’d liked to see it censored, or removed entirely from bookstores and library shelves.

According to a recent American Library Association report, “The 2024 data reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) shows that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries.”

That’s where Banned Books Week comes in. Launched in 1982, it’s an annual celebration of literacy in which the spotlight is shone on the problem of censorship in U.S. libraries and bookstores, which is becoming worse every year. The organization PEN America, for instance, has recorded “more than 10,000 book bans affecting more than 4,000 unique titles” in the 2023–2024 school year, with the majority occurring in Florida and Iowa.

(By the way, horror fans, PEN America recently announced that none other than Stephen King is the most banned author in U.S. schools, according to their “Banned in the US” list of books for 2025 that are being blocked in school libraries.)

This year’s BBW theme is “Censorship is So 1984.” To quote the ALA press release:

“Current efforts to ban books and information held in schools, libraries, archives, and bookstores are a truth close to fiction—namely, the depiction of extreme censorship by an oppressive regime in George Orwell’s cautionary and prescient tale 1984. The Banned Books Week 2025 theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights.”

Banned Books Week 2025 runs October 5–11, so visit the BBW website for more information, including a list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2024 that they’re celebrating this year.

It’s National Library Week 2025!

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Hey, book lovers! National Library Week is once again upon us, and you know us: any reason to read is a good cause for celebration! And where better to find a new book you might come to love than a library, where you can borrow it for free?

According to the American Library Association (ALA), the organization that runs the event:

“First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries—school, public, academic and special—participate.”

This year’s theme is “Drawn to the Library,” as in what is it about libraries that draws you in to visit them? Is it the search for information? All the books and movies you can borrow for free? The smell of the printed page? Whatever it is, this is the time to celebrate as the ALA marks the week with a series of events: Right to Read Day, National Library Workers Day, National Library Outreach Day (what used to be called National Bookmobile Day), and Take Action for Libraries Day.

National Library Week runs until April 12, so check your local library for any special events they might have planned for the celebration. For more information, visit the National Library Week website.

Happy Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day 2024!

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Hey, book lovers! Today marks what would have been the fourteenth annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. Founded in 2010 by author Jessica Milchman, the event, held on the first Saturday in December, was “about instilling a love of bookstores in children so that they will value and support this most precious of resources as they go on to enter and create communities of their own” (according to its website, which unfortunately no longer exists).

Well, with the holidays fast approaching, there’s no better time than now to get youngsters started on their reading journeys, or to encourage it even more, so pardon us if we continue to keep the TYCBD tradition going. After all, kids + reading + brick-and-mortar bookstores = a great combination!

So, get out there and check out your local bookstore (if you have one) with your kids. But even if you don’t have kids, visiting a bookstore isn’t such a bad idea anyway—after all, books make for great holiday presents!

(Photograph by Circe Denyer, courtesy of Public Domain Pictures)

It’s Banned Books Week 2024

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Got a favorite book? Well, odds are good there’s someone out there in the United States who’d like to see it censored, removed from libraries and bookstores, or pulped—especially these days. According to the American Library Association, “The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023.”

That’s where Banned Books Week comes in. Launched in 1982, it’s an annual celebration of literacy in which the spotlight is shone on the problem of censorship in U.S. libraries and bookstores. This year’s theme is “Freed Between the Lines,” which celebrates “the right to read, and find freedom in the pages of a book.” The event’s final day, September 28, has been proclaimed Let Freedom Read Day.

Banned Books Week 2024 runs September 22 to September 28, so visit the BBW website for more information, and check out the list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2023. And keep reading!

The Nighttime Is the Right Time: Celebrating World Book Night in 2024

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Hey, book lovers! Today is World Book Night in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Run by The Reading Agency, this annual gathering of book lovers, to quote their website:

“…brings people from all backgrounds together for one reason – to inspire others to read more. Organisations and individuals hold events up and down the country to celebrate the difference that reading makes to our lives, from book themed parties at home to books swaps in offices. Organisations can volunteer to hand out books from our annual list to people who don’t read for pleasure or own books.”

Sounds like fun, and anything that helps promote reading is a-okay with us! For more information, including how you can get involved, visit the World Book Night site.

So, even if you don’t live in the UK or Ireland, grab your favorite book (or the one you’re currently lost in), sit back, and join in!

It’s National Library Week 2024!

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Hey, book lovers! National Library Week is once again upon us, and you know us: any reason to read is a good cause for celebration! And where better to find a new book you might come to love than a library, where you can borrow it for free?

According to the American Library Association (ALA), the organization that runs the event:

“First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries—school, public, academic and special—participate.”

National Library Week runs April 7–13, so check your local library this week for any special events they might have planned for the celebration. For more information on the event, visit the National Library Week website.

Now, get out there and start reading!

Baseball and Reading: Always a Winning Combination!

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If there’s one thing our resident monster-fighting Goth girl, Pandora Zwieback, loves—other than her boyfriend, her friends and family, her skill at painting, and…oh, yeah, all things horror—it’s reading. And when it’s a literacy program that involves her favorite baseball team, well, she’s totally all over it!

A partnership between the New York Mets and Delta Air Lines that launched in 2017, Ya Gotta Read (a playful twist on the old Mets saying, “Ya Gotta Believe!”) is intended to get kids excited about reading, and involves 48 elementary schools in Queens and Brooklyn.

The goal this year is for students to “read for 20 minutes every school night for six weeks, coinciding with Mets Spring Training. The more minutes students read, the more Mets prizes they earn.” Prizes include key chains, pencil pouches, lunch boxes, and in-season Mets tickets.

Ya Gotta Read runs from today, February 15 (the start of Mets spring training—the day pitchers and catchers officially report for duty), to March 24. For more information, and to follow the schools’ progress, visit the Ya Gotta Read page at the Mets website.

Let’s go, Mets—and Let’s Go Reading!

Happy Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day 2023!

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Hey, book lovers! Today marks the annual celebration of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. 

Founded in 2010 by author Jessica Milchman, the event, held on the first Saturday in December, “is about instilling a love of bookstores in children so that they will value and support this most precious of resources as they go on to enter and create communities of their own” (according to its website).

Kids + reading + brick-and-mortar bookstores? Always a great combination!

For more information, including a map of the bookstores that are celebrating with events of their own, visit the TYCBD site.

It’s Banned Books Week 2023

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Got a favorite book? Well, odds are good there’s someone out there in the United States who’d liked to see it censored or made completely unavailable—an unfortunate phenomenon that seems to grow larger with each passing year. 

According to a March 23rd Publishers Weekly article, the American Library Association “tracked a stunning 1,269 ‘demands to censor library books and resources’ in 2022.” That’s a huge jump from previous years: 319 in 2019, 681 in 2020, and 729 in 2021.

That’s where Banned Books Week comes in—an annual celebration of literacy in which the spotlight is shone on the problem of censorship in U.S. libraries and bookstores. To quote the Banned Books Week website:

Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries…. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

This year’s theme is “Let Freedom Read,” which, according to an ALA press release, “captures what’s at stake for our democracy: that the safety of our right to speak and think freely is directly in proportion to our right to read. ALA encourages libraries in every context to mark Banned Books Week by inviting other groups within their communities to celebrate and take action to protect our freedom to read all year long.”

Banned Books Week 2023 is happening right now, October 1–7, so visit the BBW website for more information, including a list of the Top Thirteen Most Challenged Books of 2022 that they’re celebrating this year.

And if you’re a resident of Queens, NY (home to ’Warp’s Central), there are events being held all this week at public libraries across the borough to mark the occassion. Check out this article at QNS.com for further info.