Celebrating Coloring Book Day with Printable Coloring Pages

August 2 is National Coloring Book Day in the United States, and while every day is a good day to color, this is a great time to break out the crayons, colored pencils and printable coloring pages (especially since it’s so hot in a lot of the United States/Northern Hemisphere right now!).

Did you know The McLoughlin Brothers, a New York publishing firm, is credited as the producers of the first coloring book? Their The Little Folks Painting Book came out in 1879 and continued to produce coloring books for kids until 1920, when it became part of the Milton Bradley Company (thanks for that tidbit, Wikipedia!).

While many coloring books through the years have targeted kids, we know adults love coloring, too, and you can find published coloring books on just about any subject, from pop culture to animals, mandalas and more.

If you want to make your own coloring book from printables, it’s easy to do, because there are so many free printable coloring pages out there on just about every subject you can think of. A few examples I found on Pinterest:

Butterfly coloring pages from Little Moon Paper Company
Kawai style pages of all types from Mofukawa (the llama above is from there)
Turtle coloring pages from Easy Peasy and Fun
Watermelon coloring pages from Printabulls

Or check out all the options at sites like Coloringoo, Cool2BKids, Crayola, Printable Free Coloring, Super Coloring, Just Color or Coloring.ws to name a few. We printed so many coloring pages from these sites when my daughter was younger and would come at me with specific requests for what she wanted to color.

Did you know that Canva also has coloring pages? If you already pay for the service or are willing to pay for coloring pages, you can find some fun options there to make your own coloring book. You can also use simple shapes from their library or even add your own drawings. (Here’s how to make a coloring book in PicMonkey, too.) So many fun options!

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Learn about American Samoa for Kids

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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Have you read?

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