No Shhing Here

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! This is a time where we come together to celebrate all that we are grateful for. For many of us, that includes our families and friends, good food, and plenty of warm memories. But what about our favorite book characters? What do they have to be grateful for? To celebrate Thanksgiving and the month of November, I've put together a special book display featuring YA characters who are grateful for everything they have in their lives. Like most of us, these YA characters are grateful for friends, family and their health, but UNLIKE us, they're also grateful for things like newfound magical powers and recent escapes from serial killers. Interactivity is a key feature of this display. Not only does it include gratitude reflections for each YA character, but it also invites students to use provided post-it notes and add what they're grateful for. This interactive aspect is a great way to get students engaged with the material and thinking about what ...

As a school librarian, it's super important for me to mark the American Library Association's Banned Books Week (this year, it's Sept 18 - 24). As long as I've been a school librarian, I've included a Banned Books display in my library. In the past, the stakes felt low, and I didn't worry that it would cause any kind of controversy. And things have changed. Now that book banning is MUCH more prevalent, and considered by many to be both a controversial issue and a highly politicized issue, I'm VERY careful to ensure my display is informational and allows lots of room for students to draw their OWN conclusions about the topic. (This aligns with my district's school board policy on teaching controversial issues.) To do this, I use the display to incorporate three reasons why people support book banning AND three reasons why people oppose book banning. I provide students with paper and pens, and encourage them to reflect on their opinions about the topic. Th...

Have you seen the "He's a 10 but..." social media trend? Thanks to some Twitter inspo from Kesley Bogan and Megis County District Library , I had fun putting a literary twist on the idea. Here's my y2k aesthetic version of the trend.  Want to recreate, but save yourself the 4 hours it took me to assemble this display? Resources to create your own display or bulletin board are available for download here . Whenever possible, I like to make my library book displays interactive, especially if I can figure out a way to incorporate opportunities for student voice and choice. For this display, I included plastic cups labeled with "Not a 10" and "Still a 10" for each book featured. Students (when they come back next month), will use pom poms to vote, deciding if the main character is still a 10, despite their flaw.  This display translates well to a bulletin board, too. Just print and hang your signs, and staple the cups to the bulletin board to keep th...

This is my go-to bulletin board for January: Happy New Beginnings. It's interactive - students read the first line, guess what book it's from, then lift the flap to check their guess. Here's a list of the first lines I used, and their corresponding books: It was a pleasure to burn. (Fahrenheit 451) There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. ( Holes ) The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up. ( Chains ) We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck. ( Feed ) The early morning sky was the color of cat vomit.  ( Imposters ) When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news. ( Stormbreaker ) Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love. ( The Raven Boys ) The demon exploded in a shower of ichor and guts. ( Clockwork Angel ) My mother was raised on fairy tales, but I was raised on highways. ( The Hazel Wood ) Depending on who—sorry, whom—you ask, I may have kille...

I love being crafty and creative, and I groove on putting together interesting book displays. But there's only so much time in a school day, so I typically squeeze all my creative ambitions into 15-minute chunks at the end of lunch. I like book displays that include more than just books - I usually want to incorporate a little text-based information, sometimes photos and graphics, different textures and colors, and a variety of different height. In the past, I've hung things from the ceiling in order to get more display space, but that makes the fire code guys nervous. I'm also super clumsy, so even though the custodians have given me my own ladder, I still have to climb on bookcases to get things just right -- I'm just waiting to topple off of one. Last year I set out to devise some kind of display sign that I could rest on TOP of the bookcase to give me vertical surface area to expand the displays without having to use the ceiling. Here's my Pinterest boar...

 April displays are up! Once again Deb, our fabulous secretary, has taken creativity to new heights. This month's theme is The Library: Your Shelter from the Storm .We thought it was appropriate because, for many students, the library provides a refuge from all different kinds of storms, like bullying, overcrowded cafeterias, and bad days. Above: The main circulation desk We have no concerns about open umbrellas bringing bad luck, so we suspended them from the ceiling and hung rain drops stitched together along with 3D clouds - both inspired by Pintrest .  Open umbrellas and stitched paper raindrop chains  Here's another shot that shows off the open umbrellas from afar.  A different view of the umbrellas. And here's our nod to School Library Week. I know it's not much, but the sign's on the circulation desk where every kid can see it, so hopefully it makes a little impact. What are you April displays like?

In my inspection of the Common Core Standards, I'm totally stuck on the Appendix B exemplars and the emphasis on informational texts. As a result, I'm ignoring all the wonderful ways in which the Common Core align with AASL's Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Check out a standards crosswalk here. Common Core IS good news for librarians!! My initial reason for delving into the Common Core is really silly -- I just wanted to create a book display. I was hoping to give teachers examples and ideas of great high-interest non-fiction. Our English teachers were depressed by the idea of "informational texts," so I wanted to display some of the MANY great titles that I thought fell into the category in an attempt to cheer them up. Here's a little peak at my display: Above: Informational texts display with "Common Core" Apples Above: Informational texts display with high interest non-fiction Now that I've spent loads of time with the Stan...