Lucky Dip

By Jennifer Judd

Thanks to Jennifer from Mahurangi College Library who has shared this version of Lynda Sisson's Lucky Dip display. It was a fantastic success.

Here are here comments:

'I was impressed by a display on your web site a few weeks ago by Lynda

Sisson, where she had covered books with plain paper and had posters of
a Lucky Dip. I decided to do likewise, but I could not see if the books
in her display were completely enclosed or not. I felt it would be more
fun if the students could not see the book at all. I cut a Herald
newspaper in half and the pages were then the perfect size for wrapping.
We wrote the barcode of the book on the newspaper so we were still able
to issue.
We feel it was one of our most successful displays ever; we have never
seen such excitement over a "mystery" read. The first afternoon 86 books
were "wrapped" and 50 were issued. This continued for the next two days
until the staff were worn to a frazzle and with extremely black hands
from the newsprint!! We encouraged the students to try at least one
chapter of the book after they had borrowed it - even if it was one they
would not normally have borrowed. One of our student librarians - a boy
- was seen reading a book with a pink cover; he said he would never have
chosen the book off the shelves but was really enjoying the story. This
is a great way to "move" books that are not often read, or to encourage
people to try something they would not usually read'.