í means “day” in Spanish. In 1996, author learned about the Mexican tradition of celebrating April 30th as El día del niño, the day of the child. Pat thought, “We have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Yes! We need kids’ day too, but I want to connect all children with bookjoy, the pleasure of reading.” On April 30, 1997, the first annual celebrations were held in cities including Tucson, El Paso, and Austin.
focuses on providing children with books in many languages and making reading an integral part of their lives. El í de Los Niños/El í de Los Libros is supported by the , a division of the American Library Association (ALA), , an ALA affiliate that provides library and information services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking community, and .
¥ is honored to be an . In 2005 ¥ members attending the Annual Business Meeting during the Annual Convention passed the ¥ .
For ideas for celebrating El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children’s Day, Book Day, visit ,ٳ, or the .