Give families a reason to keep coming back.
A character that changes between every visit — and sometimes goes home with a family — turns your children's area into a few weeks of wonder.
Color or read with it
A child colors a Doodle or reads with it in your children's area.
Head home
Off they go until the next visit.
By next visit it's changed
A new adventure to discover, a note left behind, a fresh challenge.
They come back to see
And the story pulls them in again.
Why it's good for your library
A one-time storytime is lovely, but easy to forget. A parade gives families a reason to come back again and again — and to bring everyone along. Little ones build a love of books through play, talk, and stories, which is exactly how reading begins.
Easier than you'd think
Start with a single character in the children's area and a few simple activities. It's a perfect centerpiece for summer reading — a story that grows all season, with a celebration at the end. The families do the rest, simply by coming back.
Worth saying plainly: this is one of the most fun, research-based programs a library can run.
Hands-on, self-directed experiences are what draw families into libraries and bring them back — the most durable model of how people learn outside a classroom — and a love of reading is built through joy and play, exactly the way a parade builds it.
Falk & Dierking · Nicolopoulou et al., 2015 · American Library Association · ALSC / Alberts. Built on evidence-tested methods.
A fresh theme every year — Under the Sea · Safari · Dinosaurs · Space · Farm · Robots · Storybook
Let's make your library the center of the parade.
Low cost — and maybe free if we line up a local sponsor. Just give us your details, and we'll make it happen.
Bring the joy and excitement to your school or library