Much like the changing tide that brings new treasures to the shoreline, the 2025 Children’s Book Week will be revealing a host of programming treats—tied into its “An Ocean of Stories” theme—for registered libraries, bookstores, and families. The annual nationwide literacy event for young readers, which will take place May 5–11, is introducing an adult book creator-driven initiative; original poems, riddles and story starters; and a curated playlist of sea songs.
Below are the highlights slated for this year’s Book Week celebration.
Creators Who Cultivate. In an effort to inspire lifelong readership, the CBC is promoting Book Week to adult book imprints through a debut program. The goal of the Young Readers Become Adult Readers outreach is for adult book creators to share their own journeys book lovers, thereby encouraging the next generation of readers.
“The children’s and adult book worlds exist side by side, but are often unaware of each other’s work,” said CBC executive director Carl Lennertz. “We felt it was time to enlist the support of our adult author friends in the campaign to promote reading at a young age.” The CBC is in the process of identifying creators and plans to share updates in time for the start of Book Week.
Riddle Me This. The recently digitized archive of resources from the past 106 years of Book Week will soon have some fresh content: five poems/riddles and five story starters. “With a program so rich in history, it is fun to find inspiration from celebrations of the past,” said associate executive director Shaina Birkhead. “The story starters and poems give kids another way to connect and celebrate, in addition to the beautiful bookmarks and activity pages.”
Featured poem/riddle creators include Cathy Goldberg Fishman, Kaylin Melia George, Charlotte Gunnufson, John Himmelman, and Lawrence Schimel. The story starter creators are Debra Goldstein, Aubrey Hartman, Jonell Joshua, Mary Pope Osborne, Maudie-Powell Tuck, and Carly Anne West.
Schimel, an editor, author, and translator who wanted to write something that celebrated multilingualism, incorporated Book Week’s theme by focusing on the three-letter structure shared by sea and the Spanish word mar. “I decided to try to use that curious fact to create a riddle that wasn’t a translation, with the same text in both languages,” he told PW. “Hopefully, it gives readers all the clues they need to understand the poem and inspires them to keep playing the same multi-linguistic game after reading it—in whatever languages.”
One-on-One with Flett and Blackall. In an exclusive interview, last year’s poster artist Sophie Blackall sat down with the 2025 poster designer Julie Flett to discuss the creative process and their shared experience in the children’s book world. Birkhead described the duo as “kindred spirits” and their conversation as “a fun new element for 2025.” Flett and Blackall’s chat is featured as a blog post on the Every Child a Reader website and includes a playlist of songs inspired by this year’s theme.
Flett’s poster has been distributed to more than 2,500 registered schools, libraries, and bookstores. Posters have also been mailed to 144 Indigenous-managed schools.
Join the Club. The Story Ocean Club builds on the 2024 No Rules Reading Club, which invites kids to become a member simply by reading any book of their choosing. Participants are eligible to download the club’s badge and either post it online (using #StoryOceanClub) or use it as a coloring page, iron-on badge, or button.
A Tidal Wave of Bookmarks, Activity Pages. Five new bookmarks were designed by Tamisha Anthony, Reggie Brown, Sally Deng, Emmanual Guerrero, and Zahra Marwan. In addition, six new activity pages were created by Carly Allen-Fletcher, Udayana Lugo, Seng Soon Ratanavanh, Alice RL, Jessie Sima, and Karen Vermeulen.
Bonus? Resources. Teachers, librarians, and booksellers can also access additional online promotional materials, participation ideas, and multilingual resources (including coloring pages in eight languages). For further details, visit the Children’s Book Week website.