Engaging Programming with READ Posters

Late last year, my library purchased ALA’s READ Poster Maker DVD.   We’ve come up with a fun way to use it!

First, we designed READ posters featuring Children’s Services staff, each with a favorite book (or books).

Second, we came up with riddles that went along with each title.  Can you guess the title of this book…?

All the wolf wanted was a cup of sugar
To bake his dear granny a cake,
But the story got twisted by those three sneaky pigs,
And now the wolf’s life is at stake.

Next, we displayed the posters around the Children’s Services department. (We chose to do this program during April, in honor of National Library Week).  We printed up the riddle clues, allowing space for participants to write in the titles that matched the riddles, and asked them to fill out their names, ages and contact information to be entered in a drawing. 

Finally, at the end of the program, we drew a name from each of the following four age groups from all the entries we received:

• 6 and under
• 7-12
• 13-17
• 18 and older

Each winner was invited to come to the library to get their photo taken with a favorite book.  We used these photos to create their own custom-made READ Posters.  Needless to say, our winners were thrilled!

I’m sure we’ll do this program again, we had a good response and the people who entered were very excited. 

I’d love to hear how others are having success with ALA’s READ Poster Maker software!

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Our guest blogger today is Kris Lill, a Children’s Services librarian at the Allen County Public Library  in Fort Wayne, IN. She contributes to the ACPL Mock Caldecott blog, the ACPL Kids blog, and can be contacted at klill@acpl.info.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.