As a librarian, literacy ambassador, and social media sensation, Mychal Threets has built a very busy career out of spreading the word about the wonders that await visitors to the library. He’s now sharing his invitation to readers in his debut picture book, I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy, illustrated by Lorraine Nam, due out from Random House next February, whose cover is seen here for the first time.
“I adore it,” Threets said of the image. “I love that the library kids are all on the cover and that she used so many vibrant colors. It shows how welcoming the library and the book are meant to be.”
Random House Children’s Books assistant art director Elizabeth Tardiff, who designed the cover, noted that finding just the right image was a smooth process. “Mychal had cover consultation and approval, so we went to him first, asking for concepts he had in mind, and he came back with some good ideas,” she said. From there, Tardiff and senior executive editor Sara Sargent did some additional brainstorming.
“We knew we wanted Mychal, obviously, on the cover, front and center,” Tardiff said. “And we also wanted everything about this book, and the book’s package, to scream library joy—which is Mychal, and bright, colorful, and fun—a love letter to the library. So those were the key words we took to Lorraine for a cover idea.”
Nam subsequently turned in three sketches that were shared with Threets and the broader Random House team including the creative, art, and editorial directors. “Everybody really landed on the same concept,” Tardiff said. “It was one of those covers that had a clear direction, and everybody liked the same direction.” A few art and design tweaks later—deciding on a color for the banner and selecting the most readable typeface, for example—the cover was finalized to everyone’s liking. “It was a pretty straightforward process,” Tardiff said, saying that Threets and Nam were both “wonderful partners.”
Threets marveled at how all the creative elements have meshed in I’m So Happy You’re Here. “My whole intent was to write the words, describe my hope for the book, and then let Lorraine illustrate in a way that also told the story from her end,” he said. “I think it is much more powerful for the illustrator to have that kind of control over the way that they want the vision to look.”
Tardiff agrees. “Mychal created this poetic, spare text to work with and then Lorraine created a beautiful library world and these kids you can follow through little [visual] subplots and stories,” she added. “We gave her really minimal art notes. I prefer to do that with my illustrators anyway; I don’t want them to feel hemmed in by something that they have to draw.” One of the overarching visual ideas, Tardiff explained, was having the book go through the course of a day. “It would be kids arriving at the library when it opens, and then all the different things in the library during the day, and then families leaving at the end of the day,” she explained. “And Mychal wanted the librarians [in the art] to feel a certain way—fun and diverse and kind of cool-looking. We all wanted the book to feel incredibly welcoming to all types of people.”
Threets recalled that the book’s text flowed easily, drawn from his own experience. “I just sat down and recorded audio into my phone of things I would always say to library kids when I was a children’s librarian,” he said. “I then transcribed it into a written format. And really, my process was, what do I want a kid to see in the local library when they go there? And for the kid who doesn’t feel seen, who thinks they’re invisible, who thinks that no one cares—how would I show them that the library cares and is glad that they’re in the world and at the library?”
As I’m So Happy You’re Here nears the publication finish line, everyone involved is eager to see the book in the world. “Every book I work on is its own little story, and they’re all very different,” Tardiff said. “The fact that this one was about joy and welcoming was a bonus. It was just really fun to work on.” And Threets is especially looking forward to his authorial debut. “I can’t wait to see the physical copies of the book and show it to my mom, to my librarian friends,” he said. “I’m excited to show kids that there are so many ways to tell stories, and to use this book to encourage them to tell their own story and use their own gigantic voice.”
I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy by Mychal Threets, illus. by Lorraine Nam. Random House, $18.99 Feb. 2026 ISBN 979-8-217-02602-9
