August 2026: Oakland is a Reading Town on Oakland Reads

What's a Reading Town?

A Reading Town is a community where reading is visible across schools, programs, and public spaces — valued by youth and adults alike, woven into the fabric of daily life, and celebrated as something worth doing. Oakland is becoming that city. And it takes all of us.

Oakland is a Reading Town is a citywide effort led by the Oakland Literacy Coalition and the Oakland Unified School District, aimed at increasing time spent reading and engagement with reading from birth to adulthood. Families play a vital role in encouraging children to read at home and making it fun for them.

You can learn more about the campaign here!

The power of a great story, shared

When we read or listen to audiobooks together, as families, we create shared experiences, things to talk about, and memories. Later on, we can refer back to the characters in a story or a challenge that they faced, and relate it to our own lives or the world. We create core memories of being together and enjoying books that stay with them forever.

“Older kids and teenagers who describe themselves as committed readers tend to have families that read to them since they were young, kept books around as their interests changed and made reading together a genuine priority.”

- Reading for Pleasure article in The Conversation

Talk about books together

Reading brings us together. The joy of reading is something that so many of us can share with our children - you don’t need to be a teacher to do a powerful read aloud. And now, with our read aloud playbook, you can get ideas for easy ways to adapt a book for your child’s age and make reading fun.

When you read with your child, you don’t have to just read the words on the page. You can stop to talk about the words and pictures, ask questions or make observations about the story, or use voices to make the characters come to life. Remember, you can read in your home language to your child! Research shows that strong literacy skills in a child’s home language build a powerful foundation for reading.

Check out the playbook.

Our featured texts and reading guides

We have developed reading guides for thirteen featured books that span ages 0-18. Books often contain more complicated words than we use in regular conversations, so reading together is a great way to teach new vocabulary words (or learn them together if they're new for you as well!). Each reading guide has a book summary, some key vocabulary to teach, questions to ask before, during and after reading, and follow up activities. You can find them on the Reading Town page on Oakland Reads.

The featured texts we’ve chosen relate to joy - the joy that characters find from the arrival of summer, the popsicle cart man, to spending time with our family (biological or chosen), the joy that is hard won after many challenges, from family, society, or on the sports field. They are meant to be read together and talked about. Tag us on socials and let us know what you've chosen to read and what kinds of conversations it has prompted for you!

Check out the featured books!

Tips from a local teacher and librarian

“Ultimately, carving out time to sit down and enjoy your own book may make the biggest impact on your family’s reading culture. Reading aloud to your child is a great first step, reading alongside them is the next. Now is a great time to start.”

- Berkeleyside article featuring an Oakland TK teacher

Read the Berkeleyside article.