Idaho Family Reading Week 2025

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Idaho Family Reading Week 2025. Stories Under the Stars. Forest animals gathered for bedtime stories.

2025 Official Program Dates: November 3 – 9

Registration Dates: September 15 – October 10 (or until filled)

2025 Program Overview

This fall, gather your community and get ready to celebrate “Stories Under the Stars!” Idaho Family Reading Week (FRW) invites families to cozy up with twinkling tales, bedtime adventures, stargazing stories, and nocturnal animals—all in the spirit of reading after dark.

Library registration opens September 15 and runs through October 10.

The Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICfL) will provide the first 100 Idaho libraries to register with starry-themed activity booklets, paperback books, and bookmarks designed for children in preschool through 6th grade. The rest is up to you—bring your creativity to make this year’s event shine!

If you’re new to Family Reading Week and thinking about applying, be sure to check the Program Objectives dropdown. It outlines the participation requirements and will help you understand what’s involved in the program.

Check back often! We’ll continue to update the website with resources, inspiration, and ideas to help make your Stories Under the Stars celebration truly stellar.

The primary objectives of the Idaho Family Reading Week program are:

  • To emphasize the importance of daily family/caregiver reading time and its support of early childhood literacy.
  • To connect families/caregivers of young children with the early literacy resources their local public, school, or tribal libraries have available to help them prepare their child for education success.
  • To help every family/caregiver obtain a public library card and visit a public, school, and/or tribal library

By applying for the Idaho Family Reading Week program, the library agrees to:

  • host at least 1 family reading/literacy event (preferably through via an in-person event; virtual delivery methods are acceptable as needed) by November 30, 2025 (event does NOT have to be Nov. 3-9 only; it can be anytime in the month of November); NOTE: The primary literacy activity should NOT be the viewing of a movie with children. It can be part of the program offerings, but it should not be the core element.
  • promote library programming/resources and library cards/library access for all families/children;
  • connect with parents and caregivers about the many free resources your library can offer them in support of literacy;
  • submit a summary event report including numbers served, narrative responses, and program/resource feedback by December 15, 2025 (You can preview the report questions below.)

Program Overview for 2025:

  • We have the capacity to serve 100 Idaho libraries. Public, school, and tribal libraries may register for this program. School libraries are encouraged to partner with an applying public library and submit one registration form for a joint event. If the local public library cannot partner, the school library may apply on their own. We want to serve as many children/families as possible so we encourage community collaboration and discourage duplicate requests.
  • Program Registration: approx. September 15 – until filled (based on a first-come, first served protocol; it will remain open until filled or until we reach the closing date)
  • Libraries that register will receive: Paperback give-away books for participating children ages birth – 6th grade, ICfL-created night themed activity booklets (one for preschool – 2nd grade and one for 3rd – 6th grade), bookmarks, access to the themed artwork/graphics, marketing materials, Google slides of activity ideas and educational links, sample storytime outlines, and a recommended reading lists/handouts based on the FRW theme.
  • Libraries that are unable to register before we reach our maximum capacity of 100 libraries: You can still offer the program with the help of our free, downloadable marketing materials, the Google slides of resources and ideas, recommended reading lists, and the activity booklets (you print on your own). You may also receive free give-away books through our “Library Outreach for Children” program, if your program meets the requirements.

  • Aug. 1 – Aug. 31: Idaho FRW website updated with the new art, themed activities, handouts, and other resources. FRW registration form posted for preview before opening for submission.
  • September 4: Idaho Family Reading Week 2025 Info Session – 12:00-1:00 p.m. MT. Join us to learn about this year’s FRW theme and resources. The recording will be posted to the webpage afterwards.
  • September 15: Idaho FRW Registration opens! (closes when registration hits 100 libraries)
  • Oct. 1 – Oct. 15: ICfL begins mailing out requested materials to registered libraries. Libraries that do not register before we hit capacity can use all program art, activity templates, and other resources listed on the FRW website without registering.
  • November: Idaho FRW events held – any day in November or during week of Nov. 3-9 (the official week of FRW). FRW coincides with the national Children’s Book Week organized by Every Child a Reader (check out their program resources as well).
  • December 15: Idaho FRW event summary reports due to ICfL for all participating libraries

FRW 2025 Info Session

Want to learn more about Idaho Family Reading Week 2025 and our “Stories Under the Stars” theme BEFORE registration opens?
ICfL provided a virtual info session about FRW 2025 on Thursday, September 4. If you were unable to attend this session or want to hear the information again, you can view the recording here: 2025 FRW Info Session Recording

2025 Program Resources:

For our “Stories Under the Stars” theme, the ICfL will provide each registered library (first 100) with the following items:

Paperback Books (examples)

Activity Booklet: Preschool – 2nd

Activity Booklet: 3rd – 6th

Bookmarks (examples)

Didn’t register your library for FRW 2025 in time?

Idaho libraries that do not register in time for one of the 100 spots may still offer a FRW event and use the following ICfL-developed material for free:

  • Idaho Family Reading Week themed artwork: downloadable posters/flyers, Facebook/website banners, letterhead, proclamation and press release templates;
  • Google Choice Boards full of related resources, educator guides, and lots of ideas for extension activities;
  • Themed activity booklets by age groups can be downloaded (PDFs) from this page and printed in-house by your library for participant distribution;
  • Idaho Digital E-Book Alliance (IDEA) e-book list created specifically for FRW;
  • Recommended themed reading lists and parent handouts that support early literacy skills and are related to the “Stories Under the Stars” theme.

Resources & Ideas

IDEA Collection

Looking for free digital books to go along with this year’s “Stories Under the Stars” theme? Explore the Idaho Digital E-Book Alliance (IDEA) and discover a specially curated collection of e-books and audiobooks perfect for stargazing adventures, bedtime tales, and stories that come alive under the night sky. This list will be near the top in the featured booklists on IDEA during the months of Sept., Oct., and Nov.

IDEA Idaho Digital E-Book Collection

FRW Google Slides

To help inspire your Family Reading Week plans, we’ve curated a stellar collection of literacy and starry-themed resources to share with you via Google Slides. These four slides feature educational materials, programming ideas, and even a special page just for kids.

Click through the slides to explore the ideas, and if you’d like a copy for your library to use, email Josie Bradford at josephine.bradford@libraries.idaho.gov.

Each year, ICfL provides related literacy materials to registered FRW libraries. These materials for FRW participants can be requested when you register your library for FRW (more detail is provided on the Jotform request form).

Library staff, consider requesting and distributing these additional themed resources to your youth participants at one or more of you Family Reading Week 2025 events:

  1. Paperback Book Bundles: Night-themed for children/family participants (ages 0 – 11). Bundle sizes vary from (small), (medium), and (large). Bundle sizes will be determined by library size. English/Spanish bilingual books will also be available.
  2. Activity Booklets: Custom created/printed activity booklets with drawing, writing, and reading prompts centered around night, space, and bedtime tales. One booklet for ages preschool – 2nd grade (7,000 copies available) and one booklet for ages 3rd – 6th grade (4,000 copies available). Limits will be recommended by library size. A Spanish translation will be available for libraries to print as an insert to each activity book. (See a preview of the activity booklets on the “Activity Ideas and Themed Handouts” tab.)
  3. Bookmarks: Night-themed bookmarks for participants. Bookmarks will be distributed based on the size of a library.

Download and utilize themed “Stories Under the Stars” artwork designed by ICfL to promote your Idaho Family Reading Week event. Each piece of FRW artwork comes in English & Spanish, various sizes, some with FRW dates already included, some without dates, and some Word doc posters/flyers that leaves a customizable section at the bottom for your library’s use.

Print Materials

Digital Materials

Individual Art Assets:

Public Announcement Info

  • Sample Idaho Family Reading Week – 2025 Proclamation (to share with your local media, partners, local government)
  • Sample Idaho Family Reading Week – 2025 Press Release (customizable for your library)

Five Early Literacy Skills handouts – library can download/print themselves or order from ICfL via “ICfL Market”:

Talking is Teaching handouts – a national literacy information campaign:

Fostering Readers website – “Helping you plan fun, research-based literacy activities for children in K-3rd grade”

Check out all the great resources and ideas at: https://fosteringreaders.weebly.com

Event planning tips and ideas for a successful Idaho Family Reading Week event:

Program Registration for All Libraries:

Opens on September 15, 2025!

Summary Report:

Due by December 15, 2025!

Idaho Family Reading Week Archives

Looking for great program ideas and activities?

Check out the Idaho Family Reading Week archives.

Questions?

Primary Contact: Josephine Bradford, Youth Services Program Specialist: Josephine.Bradford@libraries.idaho.gov

Secondary Contact: Kristina Taylor, Outreach & Community Engagement Consultant: Kristina.Taylor@libraries.idaho.gov

Josephine Bradford

Youth Services Program Specialist
Email Josie / 208-639-4159
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