As former librarians Mel and I were in charge of a Book Walk during the Summer Reading Program kick-off many years ago. I decided it was time to put one together for one of our books. So much fun!!
A Book Walk incorporates reading/literacy and usually the
outdoors, it is often set up in a park. Perfect for a vendor event. A local Farmers and Artisan Market is one of my
favorites places to sell as well as meet interesting people!
I chose A Yoga
Storytelling Adventure; Forever Friends, a wisdom tale about a majestic
elephant and a homeless dog, illuminating kindness, honesty, and friendship.
Perfect for the dog friendly farmers market.
You can make a Book Walk yourself, here’s a list
of materials you’ll need.
- 2 copies of the book
- Real Estate Sign boards with H stakes
- Velcro dots
- Utility knife, cutting surface, ruler
- Scissors and tape
- Construction paper
- Glue stick or double sided tape
- the pages will need to be laminated
As a former librarian and children’s author it was pretty
tough to cut up our books but I reminded myself that the story was being
transformed into something newly beautiful. I began by deconstructing the book,
using the utility knife and a ruler to cut a straight edge. Go slow. You want
your lines to be straight. Cut the pages out of both books, stacking each book
separately.
You’ll be using pages from both stacks to put the book back
together in the right order. Line up each page with its other half. Using a small piece of
tape, secure the top, middle and bottom of the pages together.
I chose to place my book pages on construction paper which
serves as a background border, but this is optional. Tape the construction
paper together. Use the glue stick or double sided tape and place your book
pages on your background boarder. Number each page 1, 2, … so that when participants
come upon the Book Walk they will know where to begin.
Once your pages are laminated they will need to be trimmed.
Trim the laminated pages leaving a 1” boarder so that your story will be
waterproof. Go slow; sometimes the scissors slip through the laminate!
Time to add the Velcro dots. Put the dots together and stick them to the four corners on the backside of the book pages (as well as the middle if your book is on the large size). Next place the pages on your sign where you want them to line up before you remove the remaining sticky back. Once the sticky backs are removed carefully press into place. Do this for all your pages.
Your Book Walk is ready for display! Gently push your H-stands
into the ground. Space them about 8 to 10 feet apart depending on the length of
the route and the number of pages in the book. It’s best if readers can see the
next page up ahead. Then slide your real estate signs over the wire. Walla, you
are ready to go!
Giveaway!!
All three ebooks will be FREE for International Literacy Day. Celebrate mental literacy, emotional literacy and physical literacy with A Yoga Storytelling Adventure. Mark your calendars and grab them while you can. We would love for you to read them and a review is always appreciated!
Save this post and click on the links below to “buy now for free” on September 8 and 9. These will take you to the ebook. Of course, the paperback is available for purchase and the link is on the right hand side of this page. ;-)
Enjoy your adventure!
Kathe
