What if you’re not “normal”?

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Awhile back someone said something to me along these lines, “Where are all the books for ‘normal’ kids? Why does everyone have to be from a broken home or have mental illness?” They commented that the books they read growing up were about kids going out and having fun.

To which I could retort, “That’s what these books are about! Just because these characters have complex backstories and greater problems than saving up to buy some candy doesn’t mean they aren’t just ‘kids being kids’.”

But looking back at the books I read as a child, the ones I wanted to read and re-read were the books with more complex problems. I loved Junie B. Jones. She was always getting into trouble and doing ridiculous things! But her books weren’t the ones I re-read. I loved re-reading books like “The Tale of Despereaux”. These characters had complex problems. I loved books like, “The Two Princesses of Bamarre” where they had to save the kingdom. Neither of these books include, according to that person’s definition, “normal” kids.

Let’s look at some statistics.

According to the Child Mind Institute about 23% of children in the U.S. have some sort of mental illness. It’s common knowledge that 50% of marriages end in divorce, meaning that 50% of the children in our schools are likely from a broken home. The National Survey of Children’s Health reports that nearly 35 million children have experienced childhood trauma.

I wonder if any book you read contains “normal” children. So I went hunting through what is considered “classic” children’s literature.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Jess obviously is suffering from the lack of attention from his parents. Leslie has an overactive imagination. They create a complex world all of their own. Leslie’s home life is definitely not “normal” with parents who are in and out of involvement, eccentric, and scattered. Some would argue that Jess’ parents are not “normal” because they are so over stressed and struggling financially. Survey says- not “normal” kids.

Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. The Pevensie kids are in the midst of a war. They are sent to the country away from their parents. They travel to a magical world where they fight a witch and all of her scary minions. Survey says- not “normal” kids.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Alice runs away from her family by falling down a rabbit hole. She encounters talking animals, has to run away from a queen who wants to cut her head off, and talks nonsense with the characters. Survey says- not a “normal” kid.

But isn’t that the point? No one wants to be normal! We wall want to be unique and an individual. I want to read about kids doing exciting things. I want to read about possibilities. None of us are “normal” and classic children’s literature is filled with characters who aren’t “normal”. Let’s celebrate the differences and all the fun that comes from being with people who are different than us! Let’s enjoy the fact that none of us are normal!

Keep Sparkling,

B

In Memory

B

Recently I received some sad news. The Children’s Librarian that I had known for the totality of my childhood had passed away. She was an incredible woman. She loved books and she loved children.

When I had the chance to go to the viewing I could have gone with the rest of the staff at the library but I chose to go by myself. This was a private thing for me. A private grief. For you see, she is the reason I’m a librarian today. I didn’t want to share my thoughts and feelings with the world on this but perhaps it is helping me process my own grief and helping me to see how I became the woman I am today.

As a child I didn’t have many friends. There weren’t kids in my neighborhood to play with. There weren’t people inviting me over all the time. But there were books.

When I was in first grade my parents taught me the route to the library on my bike and I got my first library card. My summers were filled up with getting HUGE piles of books from the library, taking them home, reading all day, and going back two days later to return them for more books.

My mother used to make me play outside for an hour a day and I dreaded it, until I started taking books outside to read. These books were my world. I was no longer lonely as I read about the children in Wayside School. I was no longer lonely as I read and reread the Arthur books and imagined myself as one of his friends. The Berenstain Bears chapter books were new worlds to me! I could be a detective and someone who was bravely exploring new things!

These books saved me from my loneliness. And these books never would have made it to me if it weren’t for this woman at the library. She was always glad to see me. She called me by name. She handed me books into new worlds. She invited me to come to the programming. She let me know I was wanted. I could sit and read or talk to her, and talk I did- that poor woman, but I was never unwanted. I was never a burden to her.

I had never really considered it before she passed away but I think she’s a big part of the reason I’m a book lover today. I think she’s the reason childhood wasn’t so lonely and so hard. She helped me to see the bigger world and helped me to find the place I belonged in it.

So thank you my dear librarian. Thank you for the legacy you left for me. Thank you for allowing me to step into a position you once held and continue on your legacy. Thank you for saving me from my own loneliness.

You will be forever missed.

Keep Sparkling,

B

Don’t go into a Bookstore with me

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I LOVE bookstores!

Barnes and Noble is my favorite place to visit! I could spend HOURS browsing through the stacks! Reading bits of poetry. A chapter here and there. Browsing the biographies! I love it!

But it is dangerous for anyone else to go into a bookstore with me because…. I will want to tell them all about my favorite books!

Recently I had a girls night out with a friend. We went to the mall, browsed, had coffee, had dinner, and, you guessed it, went to BARNES AND NOBLE!

Now we both love books and bookstores so this should be a good fit. And it was, mostly. Except, every time I saw a book I loved I picked it up and did a book talk right then and there! In the middle of the store! She heard all about my favorites! She’s so lucky!

And then I had to grab my phone and pull out my goodreads app to add all the new books I wanted to read. And then I had to pull out my librarian Instagram and post all the books I’m fangirling over on my Insta story!

And then the most tragic thing ever happened. I heard an employee describing a book I’ve read to a customer and…. they were butchering it!

They were super underselling it! This book is amazing! Why were they making it sound like a drudgery to read??? There was no inflection in their voice! There was no excitement! Come on! This book is awesome! I love this book! Why are they sounding so boring about everything???? I knew I could do better.

And so after the employee walked away I sidled up to the person. They didn’t know me. I think they were trying to buy a book for their daughter. I told them I couldn’t help over hearing, told them I was a Teen Librarian, and asked them about the person they were buying the book for.

The customer ended up leaving with three books and a smile on their face. They bought two for their daughter and a copy for themselves. 🙂 You’re welcome Barnes & Noble 😉

So it’s dangerous being in a bookstore with me, but it’s really just because I love books so much! So go enjoy your own local bookstore today!

Keep Sparkling,

B

The Way You Lead Matters

B

You. Yes you. Right there. Reading this. You are a leader.

How does that make you feel? When I was in school there was a great uptick in this idea.

Now if you were me in much of my life you’d go, “No I’m not. I have no one following me. I’m not in a position of power. I’m a small cog. I have no influence. I don’t want to be a leader!” And for a long time I was mad at the teaching that “everyone is a leader”.

There are people who naturally have this ability to get others on board with their ideas. They naturally get people to follow them without even trying. That is leadership! I agree that many people are leaders, but I am not one of them. I can plan things and talk to people and do lots of work, but often no one comes, or no one agrees, or no one likes it. And that’s okay! I am okay with the fact that I am not in leadership. But I do have the ability to lead.

I’d like to suggest we reframe our thinking and perhaps consider a change of verbiage.

You see for there to be a leader, that means that there have to be followers. In this idea of a “leader” it automatically elevates someone above others. So I wonder if you can “lead” without being a “leader”.

According to the OED (my favorite Dictionary!) A leader is “The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country “. As opposed to the definition of lead, “Show (someone or something) the way to a destination by going in front of or beside them”.

What is the difference there and why is it important? Well a leader “commands” as opposed to when you lead you have the ability to go “beside them”. So the way you lead matters. Are you going ahead of those that are following you or are you coming along beside them?

I recently explained the difference between friendship and journeying together to some people in my life. You see friendship often comes with the idea of giving out advice. And advice is wonderful! But sometimes your friends don’t need advice. Sometimes they just need to be heard. Sometimes they just need someone to come alongside them.

This is journeying together. Sometimes people need to take all the time it takes them to process their emotions. Sometimes people aren’t happy. Look at Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh!

Eeyore is obviously suffering from some depression but his friends don’t insist that he become happy all the sudden. They don’t insist he change. They accept that he’s at a hard point in life. They don’t stop asking him to join them. They don’t ignore him. They come alongside and choose to enjoy Eeyore regardless.

Look at Samwise Gamgee at the end of Lord of the Rings. Frodo is tired and Sam knows he can’t carry the ring, but he somehow finds the strength to carry Frodo all the way up the mountain. He carries him to where he needs to be and even when Frodo struggles to do the right thing, Sam encourages him.

In fact look at the entire fellowship. They are committed to something greater than themselves. They are all willing to give things up, not so Frodo will change but so that they can support and encourage him.

This is what needs to change in the idea of leadership. It’s not always about changing those that work under you. It’s not always about just making them come around to your ideas. Sometimes it’s about coming alongside when someone makes a mistake and walking them gently through what needs to change. Sometimes it’s about understanding that this person is obviously having a hard day and they may need some grace today.

Let’s change the way we lead. Let’s not stand in front and demand, let’s come alongside and help.

For me that may mean that the kid who only wants to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I let him when he’s at the library. He may be forced to read all sorts of things he doesn’t enjoy at school and even though I know there are other books that are wonderful, he’s happy reading Wimpy Kid. That doesn’t mean I never suggest another book to him, but I don’t force it down his throat. I don’t MAKE him read something else. I come alongside and ask about reading at school. I start to hear his heart about why he doesn’t like those other books. I honor him by hearing what is going on. I make myself a safe person.

Let’s look at leading instead of leadership. Let’s not put ourselves up high and say, “well I’m in charge so I have the best ideas!” Let’s ask others for their ideas and, here’s the hard part, actually consider them and try some of the ideas! Just because we may be the person in charge, doesn’t mean we’re always right.

Keep Sparkling,

B

Illegal Books and Such

B

It’s no longer September! So I can finally post about Banned Books! I’m a bit of a non-conformist and September has “Banned Books Week” in it- thus I could not post about banned books in September. Even more so, I could not call this post “banned books and such”. I know, It’s a bit odd and ridiculous to quibble over such little things, but I am who I am and what I am is a non-conformist, just as many of these books are! (see how I tied my non-conformity into being about books. I know, I’m a sneaky tricksy Hobbit).

J.R.R. Tolkien, in my not so humble opinion, is a genius. I love the Lord of the Rings (LoTR) Universe! I think this trilogy teaches us about the importance of friendship, doing things for the greater good, and enduring in spite of trials. Yet in 2011 this trilogy came in at #40 on the American Library Association’s (ALA) list of most banned books. Some want it banned because it features smoking characters. Some want it banned because it has witchcraft and it is called “irreligious”. In fact in 2001 a group in New Mexico publicly burned a large number of LoTR books due to the “witchcraft”.

So why ban a book? Well to even qualify for the ALA’s list of banned books, a book has to be challenged to be removed from a library. Why remove a book from a library? Most of the time a book is challenged or removed because someone believes the book contains information or descriptions of things that people, children, or YA readers should not read.

This lends me to the thinking of much of the early Catholic church. In my History of the English Language class in college we discussed at length how important it was to translate the Bible into English. Up to that point it was in Latin, the language of the educated people. Who could know what the Bible really said? Only those who knew Latin. One of the arguments for not translating it into English that we discussed was that, “If the people can read all the sins they aren’t supposed to do, they will start to be tempted to do those things. We can’t let them see what sins are available to do! This will just make them sin more!”

This tends to be the same type of nonsense that leads people to wanting to ban books. Control. Control of knowledge, control of people, control of thinking. “If the kids know about stabbing someone, they will want to go out and stab someone!” …. I’m not sure I can agree with that logic.

Now I firmly believe that a person has the right to read whatever they choose within the confines of their own life. That being said, if a parent does not want their child to read a book because of the content or a person is uncomfortable with the content of a specific book- close the book! Return the book to the library. Don’t hand the book to your child. It is your right to do so.

You have that right! You have the right not to read a banned book. But you may be surprised at some of the books that have appeared on the banned books list and why they were challenged to be banned.

  • Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak- dark and frightening
  • Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh- Harriet gossips and slanders without showing remorse for her actions
  • In 1969: The Dictionary – for containing definitions to “inappropriate” and “slang” words
  • Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank- containing sexually explicit passages and “being a real downer”
  • The Lorax by Dr. Seuss- anti-deforesting
  • Hansel and Gretel by the Grimm Brothers- gives witches a bad name
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry- violence, sexually explicit, talks about euthanasia
  • Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare- promotes alternative lifestyles
  • James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl- the spider licking its lips could be taken as sexual
  • Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling- sorcery
  • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson- sexually arousal (to which Anderson responded that rape is not sexually arousing, it is a crime)
  • The Bible– religious viewpoint
  • The Quran – religious viewpoint

I wonder how many of these books you have read. Did you realize that all these books had been challenged and/or banned?

We have Intellectual Freedom. The ALA defines intellectual freedom as, ” the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. “

So let’s think about the motivation behind someone seeking to get a book banned. Laurie Halse Anderson has said that when a challenge to a book for children and YA readers happens it “most often comes from a place of love and concern. My first response is compassion.” And this is the woman who was told that her book Speak was “soft pornography”. (from personal reading and teaching of this book I can emphatically state that the RAPE in this book is not pornography and there are no instances in the book that would suggest otherwise).

Most people want to ban a book because they don’t agree with the content and they want to keep their, and other, children from reading the book. I can understand choosing that for yourself, but your job is not to police the world. Your job is not to decide other people’s morality. Understand that different people need different things.

When it comes to public and school libraries, understand that intellectual freedom in those places matter. Just because the point of view of the book is different than yours, doesn’t mean there isn’t someone else who needs that point of view represented.

So now I challenge you- go read a banned book! And share your favorite banned books in the comments!

Keep Sparkling,

B

Side Note- the author would like to note that the Catholic Church has done many wonderful things and her comparing banning books to one instance in the history of the Catholic Church is not meant as a derogatory commentary on the current Catholic Church.

Is the hype around Graphic Novels Legit?

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Graphic Novels are all the rage in the Junior Book reader world. I have patrons come in who only want to read graphic novels. Initially my thoughts are “great! More readers!” Picture Book readers are transitioning into chapter book readers because of Graphic Novels. Yay! Kids reading longer books. BUT- I see a lot of these kids that are unwilling to transition out of Graphic Novels into novels without pictures.

Wait – you want us to read something in which we won’t have pictures?!?!?! Yes, Yes I do.

Now some authors are giving us good stepping stone books such as Dork Diaries, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, My Life as a YouTuber, Stick Dog, and the Middle School Series by James Patterson. Taking away the blocking and just adding some pictures throughout, giving the kids a higher word count. This is great! But still, I struggle to get many of these readers to transition into books without pictures on every page.

Beyond the fact that many of these readers are not transitioning into long term readers of fiction, I struggle with some of the intentionality in the layout of a graphic novel.

The blocking, or panes, of graphic novels lead to a natural flow of the book and the story. When done correctly, this is fluent and seamless without unnecessarily breaking up the story. But this can also be a great tool to break up the action and the story! Yay for versatility!

I have seen a larger number of graphic novels that are being published lately that are dealing with heavier subject matter but these books are aimed at Junior readers. A lot of people seem to be of the opinion- as long as it’s a graphic novel it’s fine for my young child to read because it’s basically a picture book. WRONG!

Nope! Not correct. Very different mediums of art and book!

A lot of the heavier subjects that can be discussed with Junior book readers are getting graphic novels, which can be a good thing. But we need to be on guard. Many of the graphic novels dealing with heavier subjects, such as sexual orientation and juvenile delinquency, move through things at a very rapid pace. The friction of people disagreeing with their actions and the conflict is often very quickly resolved. If this happened in a normal novel, the writer would be harassed for not fulling fleshing out the problems and creating characters that are two dimensional. And yet, in graphic novels I see it happening often.

May I suggest a solution? A simple one? Take more intentionality in the graphic novels you are writing. When there is a big moment of conflict take more panes to describe it. You have to be aware to slow down the action. Adding panes draws out the conflict. You as the author may not read it quickly and keep moving, but most kids will. Most kids are not reading it to get every nuance. They are just trying to get their reading minutes in and want the action.

Don’t hear me wrong, I love graphic novels! I absolutely love them! I think they are great tools! I adore Ben Hatke’s work (I honestly wish I could frame some of it for my house!). Hatke does a great job of taking the necessary time to discuss the action and taking as many panes as needed to get his point across. I greatly respect this man as an author.

As Authors, let’s make sure we take our responsibility seriously. We have the ability to shape minds by what we publish and what we create for others. Let’s not take this lightly.

I was going to add “let’s not take this lightly, especially those of us who write for children and teens” but I realized something. Everyone is affected by what they read, not just the young minds that are still being molded. We are all affected. Let’s do ourselves a favor and write with intentionality no matter what we write.

Keep Sparkling,

B

Religious depiction in YA Literature

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Diveristy in YA gets a lot of hype and I totally understand that! We need Diverse authors! We need diverse characters! But diversity is about inclusion, not exclusion.

“These days it’s relatively easy for teens to find genre fiction that includes characters who are queer or people of color, or realistic fiction where such characters are depicted in well-rounded ways, not framed simply in relation to their marginalized identities.”- Laura Simeon- Kirkus YA edictor

I hadn’t thought much about this in regards to religion until I read an article in the September 2019 Kirkus.

“Religion in Mainstream YA titles seems to be conspicuous either in its absence or as the focal point of a problem- typically a young person struggling against oppression … There are a number of young adults for whom religion is a positive parts of their lives, to a greater or lesser degree, not a a huge source of angst. For these young people, faith offers a framework for doing good in the world, answering important existential questions, and feeling connected to family and community, among other things.” – Laura Simeon- Kirkus YA editor

Hmmmm. You mean we can have characters that are religious and not have them completely turn away from their religion? You mean we can have books with characters who are religious but don’t define themselves by it? You mean we can have books about characters who practice their religion and actually appreciate that part of their life? Yes. Yes, and yes.

I’ve seen a push to include practicing and nominal Muslims in literature and I think that’s great. (If you don’t believe me, check out a past article I wrote) But once again- we can’t include at the expense of excluding others.

Simeon brings up a great point in her article that yes, there are publishing companies who are publishing their YA lit in hopes of “preaching” or “teaching” their particular religion. And, in my not so humble opinion, that’s okay. If that’s what the publishing house wants to do, great! Go right ahead! There are many people who are looking for that type of literature and I’m glad someone can provide it to them.

But let’s stop viewing religion as a bad thing, okay? Do I practice my own particular religion? yes. Do I condemn those who practice a different religion? No. Do I believe my religion is the right one? yes. But don’t we all? We all believe that we know what the right way of believing is- but this should never stop us from hearing about someone who believes differently than we do and this should never be a cop-out to make religion the “bad guy” in a story, or in life.

Let’s look at a few examples of some books I can appreciate that depict faith without it being the “bad guy” or the overwhelming topic of the book.

There’s something about Sweetie by Sandhya Menon. In this sequel to “When Dimple met Rishi” Menon takes on Rishi’s younger brother, Ashish, and his aversion to all things regarding Indian culture. Ashish ends up in an arranged relationship and learns to appreciate some of the Indian culture. The book is much more about his relationship with Sweetie than about religion but I want to commend Menon for her depiction of Sweetie. Sweetie is religious. She appreciates going to the temple and appreciates some of the religious aspects of her life. It’s not her overwhelming personality trait, but it is present. Menon shows this in a very respectful and natural way.

The Merchant’s Daughter- Melanie Dickerson. Melanie Dickerson has written a series of fairy tale re-tellings entitled “The Hagenheim Series”. Each story is set in Medieval times. This is the second book in the series and is loosely based on the Beauty and the Beast storyline. It features a wonderful heroine who is willing the do tough things to save her family. She also holds firm to her faith. It isn’t preachy and isn’t a part of every chapter but it is sprinkled throughout. Her Christian faith is real and true and, just as in Menon’s book, her religion makes her strive to do better in her life. Her faith is genuine.

Choosing up Sides by John H. Ritter. Luke Bledsoe has always been different because he is left-handed, and his preacher of a father has done everything he can to change Luke to the “correct” way of doing things. Now this book does have a lot of religion that is painted as the bad guy BUT Luke realizes something near the end of the book. He realizes that the Bible has things to say that are true and that his father hasn’t looked at the whole Bible. There’s also a wonderful moment when Luke says that he can’t imagine Jesus doing what his father did. That’s the point. Luke still has his faith in religion but it is his own journey to what he believes, not a cookie-cutter version of what others believe.

So there are books out there that do this well. That allow well-rounded characters who have faith. But we need to step away from religion as the “villain” in YA lit. Let’s not sell our teens short by ignoring fully fleshed out characters that have depth.

Keep Sparkling,

B

AR and Lexile levels- the death of the Recreational Reader

B

In my small town I have seen the deadly grip of AR on the hearts of my students. I see less and less students reading because they enjoy it and more and more hating to read.

I have a theory on why this is happening. I think it can be partly attributed to the fact that electronics have become so readily available to our students in their free time. What kid doesn’t want to play on a tablet? I know that I am continually telling my nieces and nephews, “Is this your phone? Then why are you trying to look at it?” when I am responding to a text.

Growing up I would never have attempted to look over my parent’s shoulder at what they were doing on the computer. That was not for me. That was my parent’s domain, not mine. But there seems to be this idea that “If it’s on a screen I HAVE TO LOOK AT IT!” or “It’s on a screen? It’s for me!” among many of the young patrons that come into my library, as well as the children in my own family.

But even more so than that our school system uses the Accelerated Reader program, or AR. Children are tested to see where their reading level is at and encouraged to read at that level or above. Is that a good thing? Yes! Is challenging kids not read things just because they will be “easy” a good thing? Yes! We should challenge kids to read hard things!

But here’s the thing- the kids are given a range like 4.5-5.2 and they can only read books within that level….. Yep. We have taken the vast unlimited supply of stories that is the library and told our students “Nope. Pick from these 150 books. Sorry if you like the Ranger’s Apprentice Series, it’s above your reading level. Sorry if you want a quick light read like Junie B. Jones. It’s below your level. No more enjoyment of those for you!”

It drives me nuts! And students have to reach a certain amount of AR points each semester! So they take a test to see how much information they’ve retained from the book and they have to get enough “points” to get a better grade in their Language Arts classes. Really? They can’t just read the book to enjoy it?

No wonder students don’t want to read recreationally anymore! We are raising a generation of children who love movies, not books. They like movies because they can just enjoy the action and the movement of the story. There is no stress for them. They aren’t going to be tested on it.

I think AR can be a good tool but we can’t keep limiting our students to only reading within a small level. I have seen reluctant readers become voracious readers over Rick Riordan. But when they get older and Riordan publishes new things, they aren’t allowed to read it anymore and my voracious reader becomes a begrudging reader.

Let’s re-commit ourselves to teaching kids to love reading, not following some pre-determined standards of what they “should” read. Let’s put great books into the hands of kids, not just books that they will know every word. Let’s challenge our kids!

Keep Sparkling,

B

Take a Break

B

As I wrote that title, I had some very specific lyrics from Hamilton go through my head, “Take a Break. Runaway with us for the summer let’s go upstate.” And Hamilton responds, “I can’t stop until I get this plan through congress.”

Hamilton take a break? Never! How is he going to get anywhere if he stops working?

How are you going to get anywhere if you stop working!

This was me this morning. I needed coffee in an IV. I had so much work to do! But I didn’t want to get out of bed. I need a break. Not motivation a break, and I asked myself

And the answer is (drumroll please) NEVER! But I need it.

So I decided. I’m taking tomorrow. Tomorrow is my day to rest. My day to take care of me. My day to make sure that what I want to happen, happens. And that’s okay. It’s okay to take care of yourself. If you aren’t taking care of yourself, you can’t take care of other people. So go do that this weekend. Take care of yourself. Take a break from everyone else. Take a break from the chaos and the stress and breathe. Eat some ice cream. Take a walk by yourself. Listen to the song you love on repeat for an hour. Take care of you. Take a break. You deserve it.

Keep Sparkling

B

I just don’t get it

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When I was in college I knew people who wanted to become a teacher for this one reason. They were excited for this one reason. They couldn’t wait to do this one thing.

Bulletin Boards

Really? They are a continual aspect of the library. When I put one up I always hope that it can last for months so I don’t have to do another one.

I’m not particularly crafty. When I DIY ….. It’s more of a DIY fail. Almost always.

But I didn’t take any pictures of those! I took pictures of my few successes!

So a few tips for bulletin boards

1.Find something that can stay up for a long time! This bulletin board gets the book covers and what it is featuring changed, but the arrows and emoji stay the same.

2.Reuse things! Don’t reinvent the wheel. A lot of this board was already made and in the back. Pete the Cat, the Giving Tree, Dr. Seuss, and the Captain America shield had been made previously and we kept them. The only thing my fellow librarian and I made was the Pigeon (and I’m super proud of him!).

3.Book Covers Can be your best friend! Any bulletin board can be dressed up and filled up with some good book covers.

4.Keep it simple. This one was simple in theory…. But actually putting up every piece of confetti was… a lot. It took FOREVER! Luckily we had someone job shadowing at the library that day and they helped me. I bet that High Schooler wasn’t super thrilled.

I had some fun when I took it down!

But have fun with your bulletin boards. I don’t love doing them but I love finding ways to make them fun for me!

Keep Sparkling

B