Go on a Blind Date with a Book

Found displayed in the St. Tammany Public Library in Madisonville, LA
On Saturday, I trekked north across Lake Pontchartrain to visit a friend. As a fellow library lover and user, she wanted to show me the brand new library that recently opened in Madisonville, LA in St. Tammany Parish. The library is a stunner. She had an agenda for our visit, but I mostly wanted to check out the teen section. I found this sign on display and knew that I had to do the same thing in my library. This sign that you see above was posted on a rack with books wrapped in tissue and paper hearts encircling the display. Adorable.

Display that I created
I decided to bring paper with me to school today to wrap some novels that I love and see if anyone takes the bait. I used plain paper but covered each package with heart and cupid stamps. In each package I slipped a paper that asks you to Rate Your Date. I forgot to see what the public library form looked like so I created my own.

Form I created for students to Rate their Date
I wrote the barcode number on the outside of the wrapped book so I could check out the book before the kids could do the unwrapping. What fun! I had several checked out today. The students loved the idea and couldn't wait to get reading.

The first student to attempt a blind date with a book
He read this book already, so he went on a second blind date

Comments

  1. Island LibrarianJanuary 23, 2018 at 12:24 AM

    I am a new Teen librarian at a public library and am trying this idea out soon! I realize this post is old, but what did you do with the "Rate Your Date" slips? I also want to have something like this, but I don't want the filling out of slips after reading their books to be busy work... Thanks in advance!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ElizabethJanuary 24, 2018 at 6:21 PM

    I just displayed the rate your date slips on the ends of the book shelves. I taped them on as I wanted them as recommendations for the books. The hardest part was wrapping new books after the "old" ones were checked out. That took a lot of time. When I had student helpers, the job was easier, and they loved doing it. Wrapping was fun for them. You definitely need to list some characteristics of the books on the wrapped packages so that the kids don't go in totally blind. I wrote a more recent blog post about blind date with a book when I did the wrapping differently to make my life easier. Here is that post: http://www.talesfromaloudlibrarian.com/2017/02/revisiting-blind-date-with-book.html

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Holidays from BRiMS and Bookmarked

I run two book groups at Patrick Taylor. My high school book group, Bookmarked , was created in the fall of 2007 which was my second year as librarian at the school. The students really wanted a library club, but the square footage of the library was so small that I could not imagine how any students could do any actual library work. Instead I created a book discussion group. Not only did we meet to talk books, but I tapped these students to help me with fundraisers and special programming like Teen Read Week. Helping me with these special activities seemed to appease the members. I waited until February of 2009 to institute a book discussion group for my middle school students called BRiMS, or Books Rule in Middle School . Both of the groups meet during lunch, and this year, the school added a third lunch. Now BRiMS is made up of only 6th and 7th graders. Bookmarked has 8th-12th grade students. This has actually worked well because in 2014 and 2015, Bookmarked lost a lot of members w
Read more

Banned Book Week: Students Make Comments Pro & Con Censorship

Image
This blog post is being designed as a lesson for the English I students at PFTSTA. The teachers and I have collaborated on an activity to celebrate Banned Book Week (BBW). Many times in the past during BBW, I have invited the 8th graders into the library to discuss the banning and challenging of books in schools and libraries. I usually show some videos and share books owned by our library that have been banned or challenged somewhere in the US. This activity always spurs great discussion among the students and teachers. This year we wanted the students to create a written response to the presentation. We thought there was a real world connection if we had the students post their opinion online as a comment to someone writing about censorship in schools. The teachers and I want the students to learn how to compose a well thought out comment that is supported by evidence and concrete details. How more real world could it be than having the students comment directly on their librar
Read more

Students Weigh in on Banned Books and the Freedom to Read

Image
Every year, for Banned Book Week, I prepare a lesson for our 8th graders. It was always teacher directed with discussion until last year . The English I teachers and I created a lesson for the students that included research and writing. I pulled the materials that I wanted them to read, and the students would write a very short essay declaring their belief in the need for teens to be able to exercise their freedom to read what they want to or the need for certain books to be taken off the shelves of the library or pulled from the English curriculum.  Above is the slide presentation that I have made for the students. Included in the slides are several videos that I thought would get the students thinking. There are slides with links to specific articles that we want the students to read and use for the concrete evidence to support their stance. A rubric is included at the end so the students know exactly what is expected. The teachers and I want the writing to have a rea
Read more