A bookmark with a cat on top. A blank card with a line for a name. A cloth bag big enough for three picture books. That is the whole kit for a first library visit, and two of the three come out of your printer.
Spain celebrates its libraries on Saturday 24 October, and school and town libraries mark it in the days around it. These library coloring pages follow one visit from the kitchen table to the shelf and back home again, with something to color at each stop. They work in any town with a library, whether or not it has a day of its own this month.
Why libraries get their own day in October
Every 24 October is the Día de las Bibliotecas in Spain. The idea came from the Asociación Española de Amigos del Libro Infantil y Juvenil, a group of people who care about children's books, and the day has been marked every year since 1997. They chose it to remember the great library of Sarajevo, which burned in 1992, as a reminder that a library is something a town has to look after.
Each year brings a new poster and a motto. The 2025 poster was drawn by the illustrator Laura Wächter, according to the Ministry of Culture. The motto for 2026 is "Sin profesionales, no hay bibliotecas": without the people who work there, there is no library. That sentence is easy to hand to a five-year-old, because it points straight at the person behind the desk.
Before you go: color a bookmark
A bookmark is the coloring page a child finishes fastest, and it has a job the moment it is done. Color the animal or the rocket at the top, then leave the long strip light, so there is room for a name or a small drawing later.
Print the strips on thicker paper if you have it (our guide to paper for coloring pages explains when ordinary copy paper is enough), cut along the outer line and thread a piece of wool through the hole. Make two: one for the book your child picks, one for the book you pick. A bookmark also saves the folded corner, which in a library book is a corner the next reader has to flatten again.
Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
Free for iOS & Android. No ads, no sign-up, offline-ready.
Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
Free coloring app for kids. iOS and Android, phones and tablets. No ads, no sign-up, even offline.
At the desk: a card with their own name
Many libraries give children a card of their own, and the rules differ from town to town, so ask at the desk what you need to bring. While you wait for the real one, the paper version does the practice.
Your child writes their name on the line, or you write it and they trace it. The square is for a self-portrait. The circle stays empty until the visit: ask the librarian whether they will stamp it. If they do, that stamp is the year's motto in action, a real person behind the desk doing their job for one small reader.
Among the shelves: three books, no more
A library with a whole wall of picture books can freeze a four-year-old. Three is a number small hands can carry and a small head can choose. Take one book your child picks by its cover, one you pick, and one the librarian suggests. The third one is the one nobody at your table would have found.
The three pages follow the same path: the corner with the cushions, a book that opens into its own story, and the reading nook where the books end up at home.
Home again: the bookmark goes to work
The bookmark goes into the first book that evening. If the library book becomes the bedtime book, the routine in our piece on coloring before bed fits around it: one small page, then the story.
Write the return date on the calendar and let your child draw a small book next to it. A return date with a drawing next to it is one a child remembers, and reminds you.
What else could you color?
Pick a prompt or type your own — opens in a new tab.
The question every child asks at the desk
How many books can I take home? As many as the librarian says, and the card in your pocket is how they keep count.
Then the bag is full, the bookmark is in, and the next visit already has a date.
