Reflecting on February’s ‘I Love to Read’ Month

In schools, February is widely known as “I Love to Read Month,” a dedicated celebration aimed at cultivating a love of reading.

Throughout the month, K-12 teachers welcome a range of guest readers into classrooms, gyms and libraries, where these visitors share books of their choosing with students.

Social media is filled with colourful images and videos of local authors, celebrities, educational leaders and political figures reading to children, painting a vibrant and heartwarming picture of literacy promotion.

As I Love to Read month concludes, this is an opportunity to reflect on questions that often remain unexamined. Questions such as: who is invited to read? What books are chosen? Whose stories, knowledge, and cultural worlds are represented or overlooked?

These questions matter. In many schools, marginalized communities remain underrepresented and book selections do not always reflect the diverse lived experiences and linguistic resources of communities they serve.

By highlighting these inequities in a widely celebrated literacy event, we hope to offer a practical way to rethink representation, inclusion, and belonging in schools through questions that provoke critical reflection.

What is the purpose? Although I Love to Read Month is often portrayed in the media as a “fun” event — and at times capitalized upon by those seeking positive media coverage — reading aloud to children is an opportunity to expose them to a variety of literature and genres, to introduce texts beyond their independent reading levels, and to cultivate an appreciation for the power and pleasure of reading.

For these reasons, reading aloud to students should extend beyond I Love to Read month and be an ongoing component of literacy learning from Kindergarten through Grade 12.

The International Literacy Association has compiled extensive research that demonstrates a causal relationship between reading aloud and schooling outcomes, including increasing children’s vocabulary, comprehension and cognitive development, while also fostering a love of literature, positive social interactions and strong reading habits. I Love to Read month is therefore more than a series of celebratory activities or photo opportunities; it is a foundational literacy practice proven to enhance children’s learning when sustained as part of everyday classroom life.

Who is invited? Those with recognized social status or institutional authority are often invited and highlighted in the media.

For example, Premier Wab Kinew visited several schools in February, reading selected texts such as, The Kapre in Kildonan Park by Darlyne Bautista, which honours Filipino mythology. Leaders from the Manitoba Teachers’ Society and local school divisions also visited classrooms, as did well-known local authors whose readings amplify diverse voices. Parents are sometimes invited, particularly those holding professional roles such as firefighters and doctors.

However, what about community members who do not hold formal titles? What about families and caregivers who might love to read in their home languages or who might share cultural stories? Their voices are often absent despite the richness of perspectives they could bring.

What gets read? Guest readers typically select books by considering age level, theme, genre, and school context.

Yet important questions remain: How often does a bilingual community member read a bilingual book? How often are student-made books shared with the broader school community? How often are children invited to experience stories in languages other than English?

Although classrooms are increasingly diverse, English texts and Western knowledge systems continue to dominate the selected literature, even as bilingual texts, graphic narratives, and culturally grounded stories become more available in school libraries. If schools truly value linguistic and cultural diversity, what broader range of texts might be shared to honour multiple languages, cultures, and literacies?

Our intention is not to discourage schools from inviting public figures or beloved local authors.

Rather, we seek to encourage critical reflection. Who currently has the privilege to be invited to read and what knowledge gets celebrated? How might I Love to Read month become a literacy event that is more equity-oriented and inclusion-centred? Finally, how might these reflections inform everyday read-aloud practices in schools? By considering these questions, schools can create reading celebrations that affirm all children and the communities to which they belong.

Xiaoxiao Du is an assistant professor of language and literacies in the faculty of education at the University of Manitoba. Melanie Janzen is a former early years teacher and a professor of curriculum and teaching in the faculty of education at the University of Manitoba. Paige Boyd is a James Gordon Fletcher PhD fellow for research in Indigenous issues and a PhD student in the faculty of education at the University of Manitoba.