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Penguin Random House Author Mychal Threets to Serve as 2026 National Library Week Honorary Chair

Mychal Threets will serve as Honorary Chair of the ALA’s National Library Week

Mychal Threets, award-winning librarian, author of I’M SO HAPPY YOU’RE HERE (Random House Books for Young Readers), and new host of the children’s program “Reading Rainbow”, will serve as Honorary Chair of the American Library Association’s National Library Week, on April 19-25, 2026, a weeklong celebration of the important role libraries and library workers play in schools and communities across the U.S.

“I love libraries enthusiastically every week! To serve as Honorary Chair for National Library Week takes that enthusiasm to a whole new level,” Threets said. “Celebrating libraries, thanking library workers, visiting libraries is how I find my joy. There are so many library kids and library grown-ups who have yet to fully embrace their library joy, and I am so excited for them! When they enter the world of libraries and stories, I am confident they will find not only their library joy but their courage to believe in their own story and maybe even share it with others.”

The 68^th annual National Library Week theme, coinciding with ALA’s quincentennial, is “Find Your Joy,” an invitation for people of all backgrounds to explore and discover what sparks joy in them at the library. The theme amplifies a message that is ever-present in Mychal’s recurring viral videos about the innumerable ways people can find joy in the library, and in his debut picture book, I’M SO HAPPY YOU’RE HERE: A Celebration of Library Joy, publishing on February 3, 2026. Lorraine Nam, the illustrator of I’M SO HAPPY YOU’RE HERE, designed the official National Library Week posters and bookmarks, which will be available for purchase in the ALA store with other print on demand pieces featuring the poster art. In the coming months, ALA will provide libraries with free graphics and tools to help them celebrate National Library Week all featuring art pulled from Lorraine’s poster design.

Mychal announced the news on Instagram:

 

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A post shared by Mychal (@mychal3ts)

Mychal was raised in his local library as a home-school kid and got his first library card at the age of five. Threets served in his first library job as a library shelver at Solano County Library – the library he grew up in – and worked his way up to become supervising librarian of that very same library. He is open about his mental health in hopes that talking about it will help others in their mental health journey, and he is adamant about encouraging people to believe him when he says he’s happy they are here.

First observed in 1958, National Library Week is an annual observance by the American Library Association and libraries across the country each April. National Library Week celebrations include Right to Read Day, April 20; National Library Workers Day, April 21; National Library Outreach Day, April 22; Take Action for Libraries Day, April 23; and the celebration of School Library Month throughout April.