I recently read the book Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, which takes place in Jimbōchō Book Town in Tokyo. That is not the name of a book shop; that is the name of a region of the city that contains hundreds of bookstores. And it’s a real place. Wait, what?! How did I not know about this? Time to plan an adventure!

At Country Day, librarians encourage a love of reading by building excitement over books. We lead storytimes and book talks, give personalized recommendations, create themed book displays, offer reading challenges, share our thoughts on social media, host author visits and events like book swaps, poetry readings, and more. But what are some ways families can spark a love of reading at home?

Author Karen Diaz Ensanian wrote about her visit to Country Day last month! Read about it here.

We talked about the benefits of reading in our previous blog post. One important benefit is the fact that reading fiction is proven to increase empathy. This fact aligns perfectly with the Country Day libraries’ mission to provide our community with books that can act as both windows and as mirrors.

We’ve been hearing a lot about the benefits of reading, so this summer, thanks to a grant from Country Day, the librarians took a dive into the deep end of the research behind these benefits.