October might be the best reading month of the entire year. 🍁 The evenings get cooler, blankets come back out, pumpkins appear everywhere, and suddenly curling up together with a book feels exactly right.

But this isn't a list telling your child to “read for 20 minutes.” We can make reading much more fun than that!

For the next 31 days, we're mixing books with adventures, imagination, family conversations, silly voices, flashlights, fall outings and even a little Halloween fun.

Little ones can be read to. Beginning readers can tackle a page or two. Older kids can read independently. Audiobooks count. Graphic novels count. Re-reading the same beloved book for the 847th time absolutely counts. 💗

The goal is simple:

31 little opportunities to help kids discover that reading isn't homework. It's an adventure.

🍁 October 1: Welcome October With a Fall Book

Choose any book about fall, changing leaves, pumpkins or cooler weather.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: After reading, name three things you're excited to do this October.

🔦 October 2: Flashlight Reading

Turn off the lights, grab flashlights and read somewhere cozy.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Build a blanket fort first and turn it into your family's temporary reading cave.

🍎 October 3: Read About Apples

Find a fiction or nonfiction book about apples, orchards or cider.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Have apple slices or cider while you read.

🎭 October 4: Character Voice Night

Choose a story with lots of dialogue and give every character a ridiculous voice.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Let the kids assign the grown-ups their voices. This could get dangerous. 😂

🎃 October 5: Pumpkin Book Day

Read a story about pumpkins or learn how pumpkins grow.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Draw your dream jack-o'-lantern afterward.

📚 October 6: Let the Kids Choose

No grown-up suggestions today. Let your child choose absolutely anything they'd like to read.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Yes, even that book again.

🍂 October 7: Read Outside

Take books onto the porch, patio, backyard or park and enjoy some Colorado fall air.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Use a colorful leaf as your bookmark.

😂 October 8: Find the Funniest Book

Choose something guaranteed to make everyone laugh.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Vote for the funniest line, illustration or character.

🦇 October 9: Bat Night

Read a nonfiction book about bats or a story featuring one.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Learn one bat fact nobody in the family knew before.

👵 October 10: Read a Childhood Favorite

A grown-up chooses a book they loved as a child.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Tell the kids what you remember about reading it when you were little.

🕷️ October 11: Creepy-Crawly Reading

Choose a book about spiders, insects or other creepy-crawlies.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Find the creature you'd least like to discover in your bedroom. 😳

🧸 October 12: Stuffed-Animal Storytime

Every stuffed animal gets invited.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Let your child “read” or retell the story to their audience.

🍁 October 13: Nature Detective Reading

Read about trees, leaves, weather or animals preparing for winter.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Head outside afterward and see if you can spot something you learned about.

✍️ October 14: Change the Ending

Read a familiar story, but stop before the ending.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Everyone invents their own ending before revealing the real one.

👻 October 15: Friendly Ghost Night

Pick a funny, sweet or mildly spooky ghost story.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Read it under a blanket with flashlights.

📖 October 16: Read Somewhere Weird

Skip the couch.

Try the bathtub with no water, under the dining table, inside a closet, beneath a blanket fort or sprawled across the hallway.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Take a picture of today's ridiculous reading spot.

🧙 October 17: Magical Reading Day

Choose a book involving magic, witches, wizards, potions or fantastical creatures.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Invent your own magical spell afterward.

❤️ October 18: Books About Kindness

Read a story about friendship, kindness or helping someone.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Choose one kind thing your family can do tomorrow.

📰 October 19: Read Something That Isn't a Book

Today, anything goes.

Read a kid-friendly magazine, comic, recipe, newspaper article, instructions, menu or even cereal-box trivia.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: It's a sneaky reminder that reading is everywhere.

🐈‍⬛ October 20: Black Cat Book Night

Find a story involving a cat or learn something new about cats.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Invent the world's most ridiculous cat name.

🎨 October 21: Illustrator Detective

Instead of focusing only on the words, really study the illustrations.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Find five tiny details you didn't notice at first.

🌎 October 22: Read Around the World

Choose a story set somewhere your family has never visited.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Find that place on a map or globe.

🎃 October 23: Pumpkin Patch Storytime

Take a book along on a fall outing or read a fall story before heading to the pumpkin patch.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Let everyone choose the pumpkin that most resembles a book character. 😂

🧌 October 24: Monster Night

Choose a monster book, from adorable monsters for little readers to something creepier for older kids.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Design your own monster and give it a name.

📚 October 25: Family Reading Hour

Everyone chooses their own book and piles into the same room.

No requirement to read the same thing.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Add blankets, snacks and something warm to drink.

🕯️ October 26: Lights-Out Story Night

Turn off the regular lights and read by lantern, flashlight or battery-operated candles.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Add cozy blankets for maximum October atmosphere.

🧠 October 27: Learn Something Completely Random

Let your child pick a topic they know almost nothing about and find a nonfiction book about it.

Volcanoes? Sharks? Ancient Egypt? Space toilets?

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Everyone shares their favorite weird fact afterward.

🎤 October 28: Read It Like an Actor

Choose a picture book, poem or dramatic passage and perform it instead of simply reading it.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Props and dramatic entrances are encouraged.

🎃 October 29: Halloween Books From Your Childhood

Parents or grandparents choose a Halloween or fall story they remember.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Talk about what Halloween was like when the grown-ups were kids.

👻 October 30: Spooky Story Night

Tonight can be as spooky or as silly as your child's age and comfort level allow.

Choose friendly Halloween stories for little ones or a genuinely suspenseful read for older kids.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: End on a cliffhanger and finish the story tomorrow.

🎃 October 31: Halloween Story & Memory Night

Before the costumes are packed away and October disappears for another year, gather together for one final Halloween story.

Then ask everyone:

📚 What was your favorite book this month?
🎃 What was your favorite October memory?
😂 What made you laugh the hardest?
🍂 What should we do again next year?

Have kids draw or write about their answers and tuck the page away with the Halloween decorations.

🐝 Buzzy Bonus: Bring it out next October and see how much everyone has changed. 💗

🐝 One Last Buzzy Thought...

If your family completed all 31 days, AMAZING.

If you completed 17? Amazing.

If you managed four because October turned into the usual cocktail of school, sports, work, dinner, costumes, forgotten water bottles and “Mom, I need this tomorrow!”?

Those four count.

We're not trying to raise kids who can check READING off a chore chart.

We're trying to raise kids who know that books can make them laugh, answer their questions, take them somewhere they've never been, introduce them to people they've never met and give them somewhere cozy to land.

So grab a book. Grab a kid. Find a comfy spot.

Let's make October a little more bookish. 📚🍂🐝