10 Ways to Celebrate Grow Your Home Library Week as a Family
There's something special about having books to call your own. The stories you've read a dozen times, the ones that make you laugh, the books you keep coming back to, and even the ones you're still waiting to discover all have a place in a child's reading journey.
That's what Grow Your Home Library Week is all about! It's a time to celebrate the books children have at home, the memories they make with them, and the excitement that comes from discovering something new to read.
And celebrating doesn't have to mean planning elaborate activities or buying a whole stack of new books. Sometimes, the simplest moments can make reading feel a little more special.
Whether your family has a bookshelf overflowing with stories or a small collection of well-loved favorites, here are 10 easy ways to celebrate Grow Your Home Library Week together.
1. Give Your Home Library a Little Makeover
You don't need a dedicated reading room to make your family's books feel special. A shelf, basket, or cozy corner can be the perfect home for a growing collection.
Spend a little time together organizing the books you already have. Kids can group them by color, favorite characters, topics, or whatever makes sense to them. You might even discover a few forgotten favorites along the way!
The goal isn't to create a picture-perfect bookshelf. It's to make books easy to find, inviting to revisit, and part of your family's everyday space.
For more inspiration, Reading Rockets offers simple ideas for creating a home library, including decorating book storage, making personalized bookplates, and finding affordable ways to add books to your collection.
2. Have a Family Book Show-and-Tell
Every book has a story, and sometimes there's a story behind how it became part of your home library, too.
Invite everyone in the family to pick a book they love and share why it's special to them. Maybe it's the funniest book they've ever read, a story that reminds them of someone they love, or the first book they remember reading all by themselves.
Make it a family tradition by setting aside time to share favorite books together, whether it's once a week, once a month, or whenever someone discovers a new favorite. Encourage everyone to ask questions like, "What makes this book your favorite?" or "Which character would you want to meet?"
It's a simple way to get everyone talking about books and discover what makes reading meaningful to each family member.
And those conversations matter. Research from the National Literacy Trust highlights how relationships with family, teachers, and peers can help shape children's experiences and enjoyment of reading. When children have opportunities to share their interests, talk about stories, and connect with others through books, reading can become more than an individual activity. It can become something they enjoy and look forward to sharing with the people around them.
3. Revisit an Old Favorite
New books are exciting, but there's something wonderful about returning to a familiar story.
Encourage your child to pull a favorite book off the shelf and experience it again. They might notice a detail they missed before, laugh at the same funny moment, or discover that they connect with the story differently now that they're a little older.
For developing readers, rereading familiar books can also offer opportunities to practice reading more smoothly and confidently. In fact, findings from the National Reading Panel found that repeated oral reading with guidance and feedback from parents, teachers, or peers can improve word recognition, reading fluency, and comprehension.
And if your child wants to read the same book three nights in a row? That's worth celebrating, too.
4. Create a Family Reading Challenge
A reading challenge doesn't have to be about finishing the most books or reading for the longest amount of time.
Instead, create a few fun challenges that encourage everyone to interact with the books they already own.
Try reading somewhere unusual, finding a book with an animal on the cover, sharing a funny passage, or reading a story in your silliest character voice.
You can write your challenges on slips of paper and pull one from a jar each day of Grow Your Home Library Week.
Keep it playful and pressure-free. The goal is to create moments that make everyone excited to participate.
5. Make a Special Reading Spot
Sometimes, getting kids excited about reading starts with making the experience itself feel a little more special.
Let your child create their very own reading spot using pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, or whatever you already have at home. Maybe it's a blanket fort in the living room, a cozy corner by a window, or a pile of cushions surrounded by favorite books.
Giving kids the freedom to design their own space can help build anticipation around reading time. When they get to choose where they'll sit, which books to bring, and how to make the space their own, reading becomes something they're actively looking forward to rather than just another part of their daily routine.
Once it's ready, settle in for some reading time together, or let your child enjoy a little independent reading in their new favorite spot.
The best part? That special reading space might become somewhere your child looks forward to returning long after Grow Your Home Library Week is over.
6. Let a Book Inspire a Family Activity
Books can be the starting point for all kinds of fun beyond the page.
If your child loves a book about animals, spend some time learning more about their favorite creature. If a story features a delicious meal, try making something similar together. If a character goes on an adventure, create a scavenger hunt around the house.
You don't need to recreate an entire story. Even a small activity inspired by a favorite book can help children connect what they're reading with the world around them.
In fact, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) encourages families to pair books with related activities as one way to make reading and learning part of everyday life. Whether it's cooking, exploring nature, or playing pretend, these experiences give children opportunities to engage with the ideas they encounter in books.
And who knows? After bringing part of the story to life, your child might be even more excited to dive back into the book and experience it all over again.
7. Discover a Book That's Been Waiting on the Shelf
Most home libraries have at least one book that hasn't been opened in a while, or perhaps hasn't been read at all.
Grow Your Home Library Week is a great excuse to give one of those books a chance.
Invite your child to browse their collection and find something they haven't explored yet. Look at the cover together, flip through a few pages, and talk about what makes it interesting.
There's no need to commit to finishing it. Sometimes, discovering that a book sparks curiosity is a celebration in itself.
8. Share a Story Across Generations
Some of the most meaningful reading memories come from sharing stories with the people we love.
Invite a grandparent, aunt, uncle, older sibling, or another important person in your child's life to share a favorite childhood book. They might read it together in person, over a video call, or simply talk about the stories they remember loving. Encourage your child to ask about the books their family members enjoyed growing up, their favorite characters, or stories they still remember today.
It's a wonderful way for children to discover what reading was like for previous generations, hear stories about their family's childhood experiences, and find new connections through books.
For more ideas about making reading a shared experience, explore our blog, The Power of Shared Reading.
9. Capture Your Favorite Reading Memories
A home library holds more than books. It can also hold memories.
During Grow Your Home Library Week, start a simple tradition of recording a few favorite reading moments. You might take a photo of your child reading in their favorite spot, write down a funny comment they made about a story, or tuck a small note inside a book with the date you read it together.
Over time, those little memories can become something special to look back on.
Imagine opening a favorite childhood book years later and finding a reminder of the afternoon you spent reading it together.
10. Make Room for the Next Great Story
A home library doesn't have to grow all at once. Every book added to a child's collection creates another opportunity to discover something interesting, revisit a favorite topic, or build a new reading memory.
To wrap up Grow Your Home Library Week, talk about the kinds of books your family would love to explore next. Maybe your child has become interested in dinosaurs, wants more funny stories, or is excited to learn about space.
You can make a family book wish list, explore your local library or participate in a book exchange to discover new titles.
And remember, growing a home library isn't only about the number of books on the shelf. It's about creating a collection that continues to be part of your child's life.
Keep the Celebration Going Beyond Grow Your Home Library Week
Grow Your Home Library Week is a wonderful reason to spend a little extra time celebrating books, but the best part is that these activities don't have to end when the week does.
A favorite book can be revisited any day. A cozy reading spot can become part of a bedtime routine. A conversation about a story can happen around the dinner table. And a growing collection of books can give children more opportunities to experience those moments again and again.
Having books available at home can help make those everyday reading moments possible. In our blog, How Access to Books Shapes Early Literacy Success and Reading Motivation, we explore why opportunities to interact with books matter for children's developing reading habits.
At Books Are Fun, we're on a mission to get kids hooked on reading and help more children grow their home libraries. Through programs like Book Blast, we partner with schools and communities to get new books into students' hands, helping every child experience the excitement of having books to call their own.
This Grow Your Home Library Week, take a moment to celebrate the books your family already loves, the stories you share, and all the reading adventures still waiting to happen.
Because a home library is more than a collection of books. It's a collection of possibilities.
