A Librarian's Idea of a Scary House 3

This is the third time I've used this idea in some form or fashion. At our other library, we turned an entire loft bed into a haunted house on the outside, and on the inside was a bedroom with all of these scary things. This time to create the house, I wrapped an AV cart in black bulletin board paper, printed out a door and some windows from MS Word clip art, cut them out and attached them.



The shingles took longer than anything--- cutting pieces of cardboard boxes and peeling back the top layer to expose the corregated rows.

I twisted brown bulletin board paper to make a scraggly-looking tree, and recycled the crumpled paper to make it look like fallen leaves. And some of the scary things about this house is that it's:

1. Where nobody reads
2. Where books get chewed up (note ferocious dog)
3. Where books are used for everything but reading

     4.  Where there's no time to read

     5.  Where library books get damaged

     6.  Where library books disappear

Throw in some scary books, and you're all set!







Carve Out Time to Read!

The lack of time is our biggest challenge for most anything these days... including reading for enjoyment and knowledge. We're all given the same amount of time each day-- 24 hours, but it's up to each of us to determine how we can best use that time. How often do we flitter away valuable time due to lack of planning (What in the world am I supposed to be doing?), lack of organization (Now where did I put my planner?), lack of a clear vision or mission (Where am I going and what do I want to accomplish?), and the lack of discipline to get the job done (Where do I start?).

We make time for what's important to us, so one of my October displays addresses making time for reading in the midst of our busy schedules. I bought a pumpkin and carved a quick face on it with plans to find a battery operated light for it.

Ways for students to carve out time to read include: standing in line,after you finished your assignment in class, in between band or athletic events, waiting for the bus, while you're on the bus,  right when you get up, in the car, waiting for a ride, waiting for an appointment, and right before you go to bed.

Include books with pumpkins or about Halloween, red, yellow, and orange leaves, and a scarecrow watching over the display. I'm sorry to say that the carved pumpkin didn't last but a few days-- after the weekend it was black and fuzzy with mold coming out the openings and already sinking into a puddle on the table. Next time I'll just paint a face on the pumpkin so it will last longer.

I pulled more pumpkin and Halloween books to take its place.
RIP, punkin face.