Sometimes the simplest things turn out to be the best. My son, six months old at the time, taught me this lesson. As he sat surrounded by MEGA blocks and Fisher Price and Leap Frog toys, I watched him play for over twenty minutes with the purple, crinkly, tissue paper he had taken from an otherwise empty gift bag. Long enough for me to get dinner prepped and in the oven, a huge accomplishment for that time in my life. What did this teach me?

Simple ideas can be significant. I try to be mindful of this as I plan for children in the library. One of the least complicated, most loved motivators I have implemented is Buddy Books. Our collection includes at least two copies of quite a few books. I decided to display these books together as Buddy Books with one simple rule: in order to check out one of the Buddy Books you must find a partner to check out the other. You can’t leave a Buddy Book “hanging”.

Kids love the idea of having the same book as another person in their class. The buddy isn’t always a good friend – frequently it is just another person interested in the same book. Most buddies check out together, sit together to read, and even line up together so they could show their homeroom teacher their identical books. Though most of the reading is done separately, students tell me they talk about their shared books throughout the week. Success is evident when students enter the library the following week talking about and looking for their next Buddy Book. They even identify and bring me book pairs that I have not yet pulled off the shelf and added to the display.

I display Buddy Books in each section of the library so that students are still drawn to books most appropriate for them. Buddy Books pairings included fiction, everybody books, as well as nonfiction titles. I originally created the displays in the spring when motivation and excitement was waning and students’ patience with each other was lessening. I had planned for the display to continue for a month or so, but due to the excitement level, maintained it until the end of the year. I have not organized a Buddy Book display yet this year, but at least once a week a pair of students will show me the Buddy Books they found and are checking out together.

Simple. Successful.