Children’s Institute 2025 has begun in Portland, Ore., starting with a Pathways pre-conference mixer for BIPOC American Booksellers Association members on June 11, plus workshops, citywide bookstore tours, and a costume party reception for attendees on June 12. Approximately 340 ABA members will participate in the show, about a third of them first-timers, along with 32 vendors and 66 authors of picture books, middle grade titles, and YA reads.
At the Oregon Convention Center on Thursday afternoon, attendees gathered for the official show kickoff, boisterously greeting friends. When ABA CEO Allison Hill came to the stage for opening remarks, everyone hushed and tuned in to Hill’s words. “Welcome to Portland, and happy Pride,” Hill said, prompting a round of applause. “We gather at a time when the world feels heavy and the headlines are relentless; the headwinds you face at your businesses feel especially fierce.”
Hill assured the ABA crowd that “you are not alone—you are part of something bigger,” and she reminded store owners and booksellers that they “champion ideas over ideology,” value “long-form reading,” and “promote community, critical thinking, and democracy” through their sharing of information as well as pleasure reads. As children’s and teens’ booksellers, Hill noted, “You have the beautiful responsibility of nurturing the next generation of readers,” helping to raise “the changemakers we desperately need in the world.”
Hill invited ABA COO Joy Dallanegra-Sanger to the stage for pre-show housekeeping, along with Book Industry Charitable Foundation program manager Judey Kalchik and program coordinator Mary O’Malley, who introduced Binc’s mission to the assembly. “We hope you never ever need Binc’s help, but if you do, we are ready” Kalchik said, explaining that Binc assists bookstore owners, booksellers, comic shop owners and employees in times of personal disaster, housing instability, medical needs, and other concerns. Binc’s support is free, Kalchik told the crowd, noting that the foundation has offered tax-free, dues-free assistance for more than 30 years, with more than $13 million going to the aid of book people in difficult circumstances.
Library Kids, Bookstore Kids
CI 2025 began with a keynote talk by PBS resident librarian and TikTok star Mychal Threets, whose picture book I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy, illustrated by Lorraine Nam, will be published by Random House Children’s Books in February 2026. Threets was accompanied by a posse of RHCB staffers in green T-shirts bearing his likeness, and during his talk he waxed eloquent on his unlikely stardom, which has led to children and caregivers recognizing him at airports and other public spaces.
Tegan Tigani, children’s book buyer for Queen Anne Book Co. in Seattle, delivered an emotional introduction to Threets, whose advocacy for literacy and mental health has endeared him to social media followers of all ages. Tigani called Threets “an incredible ambassador for literacy, libraries, and loving community.” She joked that he is “like LeVar Burton, Richard Simmons, Mister Rogers, Bob Ross, and the best comfort read, all rolled into one,” and said that “his heartfelt mental health advocacy reminds us that the world is better with us in it.”
Threets endorsed Tigani’s list of celebrities, saying he envisions a “Mount Rushmore of wholesomeness and kindness” that includes Burton, Rogers, Ross, Steve Irwin, and “Dolly Parton as my honorary fifth.” He might belong in that gallery too—he showed the audience his arm, tattooed with a library card and Marc Brown’s children’s character, aardvark Arthur Read. “I got to be in a video with Arthur Read, one of the greatest days of my life,” he exulted.
Riffing on his topic of “Libraries and Bookstores, Joining Forces for Joy!,” Threets said libraries and bookstores aren’t mutually exclusive: “We need one another.” His free-ranging, amiable talk included shoutouts to favorite California bookstores including Sleepy Cat Books in Berkeley, Alibi Bookshop in Vallejo, and Octavia’s Bookshelf and Reparations Club in L.A.
As a young person in Solano County, Calif., Threets found libraries to be safe havens, which set him on the path to an MLIS degree and work as a supervising librarian in the hometown branch “where I got my first library card.” Although his region was among the nation’s most diverse, he said, young library patrons were surprised to learn he was in charge. “They would see my silly hair, my gigantic Afro, and say, I didn’t know I could become a librarian,” Threets said. He welcomed them even “before I was saying ‘I’m so happy you’re here’ consciously.”
Threets also addressed mental health and neurodivergence, reminding booksellers to make room for people with autism, ADHD, and varied modes of sensory processing. He shared his personal difficulties with depression and anxiety as well. When he quit his supervising job, he intended to harm himself, but was astonished that “so many positive messages kept on coming in” from people who loved his social media persona. “Now it is June 12, 2025, and I don’t know how, but I am still alive,” he said, as the crowd erupted into applause.
“I don’t take any day for granted,” Threets told listeners, reflecting on his talent for exhorting “library kids” like himself to read and learn. “This is my chance to keep on going.”
