World Book Day

World Book Day is a perfect example of taking bits and pieces from different places and times and fitting them to where you are! I loved St. Jordi in Barcelona, and have always wanted to recreate it. The Elementary Librarian and I decided we wanted to start a World Book Day celebration on April 23 (same as St. Jordi) and have a school-wide celebration of reading. We worked together to make sure we had similar activities across divisions, ease for classroom teachers to participate, and pulled in parents and community to celebrate with us.

It was, BY FAR, one of the best days of my career.

Everyone was encouraged to dress as a book character, and the creativity was astounding. We started the day with middle school students reading with EC and Elementary students throughout the school. (The middle schoolers had visited the elementary library the week before to choose favorite books and practice reading them aloud, which helped a lot.) We had a display up called "Writes of Passage" where students and staff added titles of books that changed their lives. We handed every staff member (including support staff and custodial staff) a sticker of a book cover or author to wear for the day, and students had an "I Spy" challenge to find as many titles and authors as they could. There were photo booths set up in both libraries, with lots of literary-themed props and signs. We had a pub-style quiz with teams made up of kids from every division and a huge range of titles. And the middle school had a Battle of the Books style competition during an assembly, where we also gave out prizes to the students who had checked out the most books throughout the year. We had a Literary Themed Bake Off for Secondary Students during the morning break, with guest judges and real prizes. It was super fun!

By far, though, the highlight of World Book day 2019 was the Living Library. We invited parents, teachers, support staff, and community members to be the "Living Books" and to come in and share their stories. Students could read the 'story blurbs' ahead of time and showed up to the libraries knowing which story they wanted to hear. The stories were incredibly varied - growing up in a war-torn country that no longer exists, medical anomalies, international adoption, artistic projects, and previous careers in dolphin training, stilt-walking, fire-fighting, ballroom dancing - it was amazing. People shared stories, listened with their ears and their hearts, and our community grew that day. People are already asking about the Living Library 2020 and I'm already working on making it better!