Celebrate National Library Week April 19-25, 2026, with the theme “Find Your Joy”. National Library Week is an annual celebration that highlights the importance and value of libraries to our communities. Explore these titles and activities about “joy”, then explore TeachingBooks to find books that bring you joy!

For Younger Readers

• Make a book cover jigsaw puzzle and then ponder “What makes a good day?” with this activity from Daniel’s Good Day.

• Reflect on what moments in life brings us joy with these activity ideas after watching the complete video book reading for My Heart Fills with Happiness.

• Think about what joys can be found around after listening to this audiobook excerpt for The Little Book of Joy.

• Enjoy the complete video reading of Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids, then decorate buckets, take a pledge, and more with this activity guide.

• Check off some of the ways to bring joy from this Bucket Filling Checklist from author Carol McCloud for Bucket Filling from A to Z: The Key to Being Happy.

• Create “Feel Good” collages with guidance from page 7 of this activity guide for The Feel Good Book.

• Sing along to the song “Lovely Day” with this video book trailer, then enjoy the complete video book reading.

For Older readers

• Watch this video book trailer for The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World featuring Desmond Tutu and Dalai Lama. Use the questions they pose to prompt a writing exercise. Explore these discussion questions for more.

• Use the title of the book A Good Thing Happened Today as a discussion prompt. Encourage each person to share one good thing that happened recently to practice finding glimmers of joy even in small or simple things.

• Hear the author's explanation of “chaotic happiness” – finding joy even amongst the chaos and challenges of life in this in this audio excerpt of Chaotic Happiness: The Psychology of Finding Yourself in a World That's Lost.

• Read the first chapter of The Book of Awesome (Snowy Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in your Pocket and Other Simple, Brilliant Thingsusing the eBook preview to hear how the author suggests people look for the small joys amongst the “bumps” in life. Using the Table of Contents as inspiration, have each student write paragraphs about their “Awesome!” following the model in the preview.

• Explore titles on this list that bring joy to readers: Laugh Out Loud with these 16 Funny YA Books

For Anyone

• Write about a book you’ve read that has brought you joy.

• Use our Discover Like Books tool to find additional titles that might bring you joy.

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For Library-related activities, check out our 2025 National Library Week post.