making a display

ok. i don’t know why i get such a kick out of it, but i love to decorate the children’s space here at the library and i super love to make really cool book displays. yesterday was the day to take down all the summer library program decor since school started and so i needed to put some new stuff up. we finally broke ground for the new building on wednesday, so i decided to go with a construction theme that i’d been saving props for since before we moved out! so far, there are plastic hard hats on some stuffed animals, a few toy construction vehicles and i pulled some good picture books about diggers and such (hooray for mike mulligan!). it’s pretty cute, but i have another component up my sleeve and if it turns out good, i’ll share pictures with you.

i also created a quick back-to-school display of books near the circulation desk. that was so-so cute (needed more realia, but i’m sick of all the wooden apples and pencils we use every year).

today, i re-worked an old display based on the series of unfortunate events (by lemony snicket–one day a customer at barnes and noble saw a button on my nametag that said, “please don’t ask me about lemony snicket” and she said, “oh, that sounds yummy!”) that i’d created last november. if you haven’t read these books, do. but read them lightly. they are formulaic (that’s reassuring to the target age group) but the writing style is great. don’t let the jim carrey movie influence your opinion. bleh.

so, back to my story–i created a display for the series last november. my display was heavily influenced by a workshop i’d gone to about displays, so don’t be too impressed–most of the ideas were stolen. i did add some of my own elements (i found those mirrors for 90% off at a crafts store after halloween!) and doing it has given me inspiration for displays since then. after we were done using it, i offered it to other libraries. at least three other libraries took me up on the offer. i was excited today when i got the display back because some of the librarians added their own pieces and told me that they got lots of compliments on the display and it just makes me so happy that it was able to be used that whole time instead of sitting in a box, gathering dust! today’s re-mix includes some of the elements of the original, but instead of just promoting unfortunate books, it is an advertisement for a contest i’m holding for kids to guess the title of the newest book coming out in october. i can’t wait to see what they come up with!