World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) 2026

Because WRAD is rad! You see what I did there, right? Does anyone use rad anymore? Probably not.

Now that I'm done aging and embarrassing myself, I wanted to draw your attention to the upcoming World Read Aloud Day on February 4, 2026. LitWorld started WRAD back in 2010, and I've been participating since my first picture book came out in 2021. WRAD celebrates the importance of reading aloud, a form of storytelling, as a means of building community and championing literacy. Reading aloud does great things in the brains of readers and listeners/watchers. (More on that here, too.)

Reading aloud brings people together in shared experiences and is just fun. The stories people share expand our sense and understanding of the world around us and build empathy. They inspire us. They inform us. They comfort us. And so much more.

On WRAD, authors and illustrators around take part in live virtual and in-person events in which they share their books or other books with audiences. You can be a part of that.

LitWorld's WRAD Activity Hub provides lots of resources and links to get you started, including an activity packet and group games. Links lead to online video read-alouds of children's books.

You can also hop over to Kate Messner's WRAD page and sign up to receive a list of authors and illustrators giving 10- to 15-minute virtual read-aloud sessions that day.

It's also a great time to reach out to local authors and illustrators, many of whom are always eager to come join you in the classroom or library or on screen. If you're in the Dayton, Ohio, area, send me a message as I'm starting to schedule read-aloud visits now.

Finally, there are lots of great online resources with pre-recorded read-alouds. You can find some of them on my resources page here, including one webpage with ASL read-alouds and another.

I also have video read-alouds with ASL interpretation for my two picture books, The Wall and the Wild and Hide and Shh! Anne, the interpreter for both, is amazing!

We Are Teachers also has a wonderful listing of good read-aloud channels on YouTube.