Printable Bookmarks for Kids

April 12 is DEAR Day, otherwise known as Drop Everything and Read, a concept made popular by Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books. (It’s April 12 because it was her birthday.)

Reading is worth celebrating all the time, and I thought it would be fun to help encourage kids to read more and to celebrate DEAR Day by sharing some printable bookmarks you can use with your kiddos in the library space in your classroom or at home.

If you want to learn more about Beverly Cleary and her books you can do so on her website, or learn more about DEAR Day from Reading Rockets.

Parties Made Personal has a massive collection of printable bookmarks for kids and adults alike to print and color. There are 13 pages of bookmarks in all, with themes ranging from weather to ice cream, space to bugs. I love the cactus ones!

Artsy Fartsy Mama has some super cute unicorn bookmarks for kids to print and color. You’ll want to break out the glitter crayons or gel pens for these to add a little sparkle.

Skip to My Lou has a collection of reading themed bookmarks to print and color. I Like to Read Past My Bedtime is my favorite because that’s still me.

Have a fan of Baby Yoda (“his name is Grogu,” as Din Djarin would remind us) in the house? Grab these bookmark printables from Rock Your Homeschool.

Printablee has some reading themed bookmarks as well as some with geometric doodles and flowers you can color, great for kids and adults.

Make DEAR Day or any day more fun by building a reading fort (or just pile pillows on the floor), grabbing your favorite snacks and reading books (silently, of course!) together.

Looking for even more printable bookmarks for kids? Check out this collection I gathered a couple of years ago.

[Photo: Artsy Fartsy Mama.]

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Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

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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