The Book Barn

The loft bed turned into a barn this month. My library aide made posters of old barn wood and wrapped them around the frame before Christmas. We switched libraries after the break, so I finished the display for her. I had two old window frames that I tacked onto the back red bulletin board paper (folded vertically like a fan to make it look like slats- see close-up on 3rd picture). I tacked an X of white strips to give the appearance of barn doors.

I added a title using MS Word's letters; drew cartoon cow and horse heads on bulletin board paper and hung them from the loft frame where it looks like they're standing in a stall. I taped some recycled cardstock on their heads to keep them from curling.

I took an iron candle holder and added a rolled-up piece of yellow paper to make it look like a lamp burning and hung it in the center of the loft. I added comments for each animal and attached them to the back wall. The cow says, "Read any mooo-ving books lately?" and the horse answers, "Neigh... I like adventure stories." I know, it's corny, but we had to use barn humor.

The rectangle baskets look a little like hay bales, and we had a red metal tub stored in the back that I put some large bands of fringe in it-- it looks more like spaghetti than livestock feed, but that's okay. I pulled books with barns on the covers and farm animal books and propped some fence wire beside it to complete the display.

After I took the pictures, I placed a small table beside the barn to display more domesticated animal books. And that's our Book Barn.