Naughty Antiheroes!

By Michelle Reid

Thanks to Michelle for sharing her Christmas display idea - great to see something a bit different!

Here are her comments:

'This year I flipped our holiday-themed display to feature characters who would find themselves on Santa’s “naughty” list: antiheroes! I found the free poster template on www.canva.com and used our die cutter to make stockings filled with paper coal'.

Totally Christmas!!

By Fran Karmann

Thanks to Fran for getting us in the mood for Christmas with her glorious displays!

Some fabulous ideas here!

Oh Christmas tree ...

By Liz Jones

This is the top Christmas Display idea of all time! Thank you for sharing it Liz.

I'll let her tell you about it:

'At present we have the most successful display EVER in our library, but I'm very sorry to say it wasn't our idea! The Science department asked everyone to create a Christmas tree that represented their department in some way, and they're on display in the library for students to vote for. The best thing, apart from the amazing creativity, is that staff are all coming over to see them, so it's been a lovely social time and brought people to the library who seldom, if ever, darken our doors.. The Fashion department made a Christmas tree dress, Science had lots of test tubes, ESOL had lots of flags, Property used a ladder, the Preschool made a tree of hand-prints, Social Sciences did the 12 days of Christmas. ....And we of course used books, and also made a magazine tree."

Secret Book Santa

By Valerie Dewhurst

90 Days 'till Christmas .... never too early to think about displays! How about Valerie's Secret Book Santa idea:

Wrap lots of books up in Christmas paper, on the reverse write some clues about the book: genre, author name etc - but not too much information so you don't give the secret away. The children choose a secret book - using the reverse to help decide and are then encouraged to give it to a friend or sibling or just keep for themselves - so basically a mystery - until opened up!

STAR Books

By Valerie Dewhurst

90 days to go... it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas Displays! This is a fabulous idea from Valerie: Write down your most popular books of the year on stars and hang them on the tree. Or get students to write down their own favourite books of the year on the back of old Christmas cards.

There's SNOW place like the library!

By Fran Karmann

Lovely seasonal displays of polar bears, snow flakes and the book tree are Fran's winter way of welcoming readers!!!

Hibernate with a good book.

There's SNOW place like the library.

There's SNOW thing like reading.

Thanks for sharing Fran.

Santa is Reading

By Adele Jones

Apologies to Adele for not getting this fabulous idea onto the blog in time for Christmas 2013 .... but there is always next year ... only 355 days to go!

Adele, from Holy Family School in Leeds is celebrating a newly refurbished library with a 'Santa story' event. I imagine the children listened very intently to the stories from Santa as misbehaving may have resulted in getting crossed off his present list!

Adele has decorated a chair Santa style and provided snacks (pretend ones!) for the man himself! The sign behind reads: 'Santa is Reading'

Thanks Adele, I hope you and all our blog readers had a wonderful Christmas.

Unwrap the Gift of Reading

By Amanda Buschmann

What wonderful creativity and imagination there is in our libraries!

Thanks to Amanda for sharing her brilliant idea - 'Unwrap the Gift of Reading' 

Here are here comments:

'Here is a display currently running in my middle school library located in Humble, Texas (a suburb of Houston). I spun it off of a Valentine's Day "Go on a blind date with a book" display I saw on Pinterest. Essentially, my library aides chose books that they thought students would enjoy/be excited about. We wrapped them and on the covers put the following info: barcode (to check them out), genre, and good for boys/girls (middle school boys are especially sensitive about this).

It is a hit! Sorry about the blurry second photo, but I also wanted to share the "rules" I set up for the students so they wouldn't keep checking out books, unwrapping them, and then checking them back in. They have to give the book a "chance"--meaning read it for a few chapters--before deciding to return it.

The students get really excited when they realize they get to unwrap a book! I have boys who have been in our school suspension program actually pay their fines so that they are able to check out these books. Very cool! :)'

Christmas is coming ...

By Donna Le Marquand 

Donna has cleverly used withdrawn books to make Christmas decorations for her library - good one Donna, thanks for sharing!

Christmas Tree

By Natalie Wood

I adore this lovely Christmas tree that Natalie has shared and the way she has involved the students in its creation. I will let her tell you how she has made it::

'This year’s ‘Christmas Tree’ has been made by drawing around the children’s hands on green paper and then cutting them out and layering them to make the tree. Before putting them on the board you could always get them to write details of the book they are reading along the fingers. This year I've got the pupils to write what book they are reading on baubles which they can then hang on the tree.I don’t have any room directly in front of them but have two window sills either side in which I put a selection of themed books'.

Thank you Natalie and have a very happy Christmas!

Melt away with a good book

By Callum Tims
Callum is a student librarian and it is especially nice to be able to share his fantastic display!
This display is part review board and part Christmas craft board.
Thanks & well done Callum!

Warm up your holidays with these Romance titles..

By Sherry Cortes
Light the fire and snuggle down with a good romance! That's the invitation from Sherry!
This is what she says:
'Hello from the United States! My name is Sherry Cortes, and I am the reference librarian at Savannah Technical College, a small technical school in Savannah, Georgia. We don’t have much room for displays, but I work with what we do have and try to make each month a different theme. This month is a romance for the holidays, with romance books—we had gotten in a shipment of Zane books which inspired the display, but those were checked out before I had a chance to even put them up, so I found other romance novels on our shelves.
It keeps things interesting here to have a little display, and there has definitely been an increase in book checkouts since I started doing this'.

Thanks for sharing this inviting display Sherry - have a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Tree

By Elaine Pearson
This is the first time for a long while that many of the books in my stack have come out to play!
I have had lots of positive comments about my book Christmas tree, and a few students wanting to issue ones on the bottom layer! (lol) The lights set it off just nicely. The idea came from some pictures circulated via the NZ library list-serve. The 'Season's Reading's' banner is from a Christmas display I did years ago.

Christmas - The Nativity

By Grace
Grace has just completed three weeks of work experience in a school and was given the task of creating some displays. Good job Grace! And thanks for sharing.

Season's Readings

By Grace

Grace has just completed three weeks of work experience in a school and was given the task of creating some displays. Good job Grace! And thanks for sharing.

The Gift of Reading Lasts Forever

By Glee Stormont
Here is Glee's holiday display for the Kailua Intermediate School library.
She made the wreath from a dictionary she picked out of the free bin at the public library's used book store. I LOVE it!
The gift of reading does indeed last forever - what a great Christmas display Glee - thank you!

Winter

By Judith Dickson
Judith is a Teacher Librarian at Weber Elementary, in Iowa City, Iowa.
She has shared these delightful pictures of her winter library display and says:

'One way to create a nice winter feel in the Media Center is to have Gingerbread Libraries on display. This week, we had 30 5th/6th grade student helpers come in for the special project of constructing them! They had a ball and ate lots of candy while designing them! The new book table certainly attracts attention with 15 Gingerbread Libraries of varying sizes nestled amongst the books!'

A very timely display as many of you in the Northern hemisphere battle (and enjoy?) the snow. It's a wonderfully creative and yummy way to get the students involved and I can see that it would attract plenty of attention! Well done and thanks Judith.