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Abstract

This study aimed to gauge the impact and effectiveness of reading illustrated bilingual books on listeners’ English language learning, creativity, and happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic. A public bilingual storybook reading was carried out with the support of two volunteer students, a professional ethnomusicologist, a Mogu-mogu project, a non-profit group, and Hon [Book] Café in Shinobuyama. Three self-published positive psychology intervention (PPI) - themed storybooks that dealt with elements of gratitude, kindness, and compassion using dialogic techniques, funded by the researcher’s affiliated university were present at the reading. Post-reading, participants reported feeling grateful and almost as they had prior to the pandemic in response to the bilingual storybook. Through book reading, societal connectedness was strengthened, and organic flows of networking increased. This positive result draws attention to the significance of those factors originally motivating the project: the need to teach, learn, inspire and connect with others. It reinforced the idea that by being grateful, kind, and compassionate with others, we can be happy ourselves and spread happiness more widely