ObservanceWednesday, November 10, 2027
National Young Readers Day
- Date
- Recurs
- Every year on November 10
- Category
- Books
National Young Readers Day is an American reading observance marked in November, and a useful example of how thin the documentation behind a widely listed day can be. The Library of Congress published mentions of it in 1993 and 1995, the second describing Pizza Hut — the company behind the BOOK IT! classroom reading program — as cosponsor alongside the Library's own Center for the Book. What no primary source we could find states is who created the day, in what year, or by what date rule.
History
Start with what is documented. Congress established the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in 1977, under Public Law 95-129, to promote books and reading. In 1987 the Center launched its "national reading promotion partners" program, beginning with a campaign called "The Year of the Reader." A later campaign was "The Year of the Young Reader," in 1989.
Pizza Hut enters the record in 1989. A 1997 Center for the Book publication states that "Pizza Hut, Inc., sponsor of the BOOK IT! National Reading Incentive Program in the nation's elementary schools, and the Center for the Book have been reading promotion partners since 1989." A 1993 Center for the Book report notes that "since 1989" Pizza Hut had funded the brochure accompanying each national campaign.
The day itself first appears, in the sources we could reach, in that same 1993 report — spelled "National Young Reader's Day," with the apostrophe before the s — in a state-by-state listing of reading promotion activity. Two years later, a February 1995 Library of Congress Information Bulletin described Pizza Hut Inc. as "cosponsor with the center of National Young Reader's Day" and as "sponsor of the BOOK IT! Reading Incentive Program in the nation's schools."
So the cosponsorship is solid, and the Library of Congress is genuinely one of the two cosponsors. The founding is not. The claim repeated across the internet — that Pizza Hut and the Library of Congress created the day in 1989 — fits the sourced facts suspiciously well: 1989 is when the partnership began, and it was also the year of the Center's "Year of the Young Reader" campaign. That is a plausible route for the claim to have formed, and it is not a source for it. The origin of this observance is not well documented.
Timeline
- 1977 — Congress establishes the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, under Public Law 95-129.
- 1987 — The Center for the Book launches its national reading promotion partners program, beginning with the campaign "The Year of the Reader."
- 1989 — Pizza Hut, Inc., sponsor of the BOOK IT! reading incentive program, becomes a reading promotion partner of the Center for the Book. The Center's campaign that year is "The Year of the Young Reader."
- 1993 — "National Young Reader's Day" appears in the Center for the Book's own report Developing Lifetime Readers, in a state-by-state listing of reading promotion activity. This is the earliest mention of the day we could document.
- February 1995 — A Library of Congress Information Bulletin names Pizza Hut Inc. as "cosponsor with the center of National Young Reader's Day."
How to observe
Read with a child and let them choose the book, including a rereading of one they already know by heart. The repetition that bores an adult is doing something for a four-year-old.
If you are organizing anything — a school event, a library program, a readathon — the Center for the Book's 1993 report Developing Lifetime Readers is online in full: a state-by-state catalog of what reading promotion actually looked like at scale. Every entry is something somebody really ran, which makes it more useful than a list of tips.
Try sourcing the day yourself. It takes about fifteen minutes; every aggregator asserts the same 1989 founding and none cites anything. Watching a confident fact dissolve under one round of checking is a better literacy lesson than most material written for the occasion.
Frequently asked questions
Who created National Young Readers Day?
Not documented. It is widely attributed to Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! program and the Library of Congress's Center for the Book in 1989, but no primary source we could find says so. What the Library of Congress's own publications do establish is that the two organizations became reading promotion partners in 1989, that the day existed by 1993, and that Pizza Hut was its cosponsor alongside the Center for the Book by 1995.
What date is National Young Readers Day?
This page lists it on November 10. No Library of Congress source we could reach states a date or a date rule, and some listings place it on the second Tuesday in November — which in 2026 is also November 10, so the two agree this year and will not in most others. We have no primary source to settle which is right.
Is National Young Readers Day a federal holiday?
No. Nothing closes and there is no day off. The Library of Congress's involvement is as a reading promotion cosponsor, which carries no official status for the date.
Why is it sometimes written "National Young Reader's Day"?
Because that is the spelling the Library of Congress used in its own publications in 1993 and 1995 — singular possessive, the day of the young reader. The plural form now in general use appears to be a later drift; we found nothing documenting when it changed.
When is National Young Readers Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | November 10 | Wednesday |
| 2028 | November 10 | Friday |
| 2029 | November 10 | Saturday |
| 2030 | November 10 | Sunday |
| 2031 | November 10 | Monday |
Sources
- Library of Congress, Center for the Book, Building a Nation of Readers (1997), ERIC ED414562 — https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED414562.pdf → the quoted sentence that Pizza Hut, Inc., sponsor of the BOOK IT! National Reading Incentive Program, and the Center for the Book "have been reading promotion partners since 1989"; the campaign list naming "The Year of the Young Reader" (1989) and "The Year of the Lifetime Reader" (1991). This document does not mention the day at all, which is itself part of the record.
- Library of Congress, Center for the Book, Developing Lifetime Readers (1993) — https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/becites/cfb/93214784.html → the earliest documented mention of "National Young Reader's Day," in a state-by-state listing of reading promotion activity; the statement that "since 1989" Pizza Hut, Inc., sponsor of BOOK IT!, funded the brochure accompanying each campaign; and the establishment of the Center for the Book "in 1977 by Public Law 95-129."
- Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Posters, Products and Ideas Available (February 20, 1995) — https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9504/cfb.html → Pizza Hut Inc. as "cosponsor with the center of National Young Reader's Day" and "sponsor of the BOOK IT! Reading Incentive Program in the nation's schools."
- Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Reading Promotion Partners (June 2002) — https://loc.gov/loc/lcib/0206/cfb.html → the partnership program formally starting in 1987 with the launch of "The Year of the Reader."
- Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Reading Promotion Themes and Projects (February 2002) — https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0202/cfb.html → the Center's launch of its "national reading promotion partners" program in 1987; Congress establishing the center in October 1977.
- Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Promoting Literacy, 1980-2002 (September 2002) — https://loc.gov/loc/lcib/0209/cfb.html → the Center for the Book established in 1977 to use the resources and prestige of the Library of Congress to promote books and reading.
Add to your calendarA calendar file for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. The event repeats every year. You can also subscribe to this observance or to the whole calendar.
← See everything November 10 celebrates