Book Walk at Sharon Forks

Submitted by LeAnne Craig

This weekend we debuted our first ever indoor Book Walk at the Sharon Forks Library. The idea came out of a collaborative brainstorming session of SF youth service staff as we discussed “out of the box” ideas for programming during these challenging times. With a little imagination, creativity, and hard work, along with cardboard boxes, paint and puppets, we turned our meeting room into a winter day on the farm! It was truly a joint effort as staff pitched in to bring in props and helped in the barn raising! Our amazing staff member, Steph Gardner literally turned cardboard into magic!

 

As patrons walk through the pages of our featured book, The Hat by Jan Brett, they will experience the sights, sounds, and even the smells of a farm and forest path.  The story begins inside of the farmhouse, then takes you “outside” where there is a barn, chicken coop, duck pond and pig pen. Readers then progress to a wooded path before coming to the surprise ending. We’ve added some fun winter facts, book display recommendations, early literacy tips and a take home coloring sheet at the end.  To make it even more interactive, there is a scavenger hunt for our older patrons to do while visiting the farm where they’ll have to find things like a blue egg, a black hat, five red birds, a Pete the Cat sock and more.

 

Our hope is that our patrons both young and old will experience a bit of wonder and joy in a book coming to life as they walk through the pages of the story.

 

Here is the link to the video walkthrough:   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MUra4YyS_U9RLoseu8lIYz42CuCk6qr9/view?usp=sharing