At the end of our Summer Reading Club, we took all the winning prize slips from our drawings this summer and put them in a big box. Our Children Services manager and our Outreach manager (and keeper of the Bookmobile!) created a brand new grand prize for the SRC kids this summer: a Bookmobile Grand Prize party. The winners were chosen to host a party at their house or in a park---any place large enough to allow our bookmobile to stop---and we provided the books on the bookmobile, and a Children's librarian with stories, crafts, and a snack.
We had our first Bookmobile Grand Prize party a couple weeks ago, and it was a big success! There were 13 kids and 6 adults present and we gave out 5 new library cards. It was a terrific opportunity for some of the kids who had never been able to go onto a bookmobile, and for others we were able to give them their first library card. Now when they see the big blue Bookmobile in their area, hopefully they will want to come aboard and check out books and movies.
Prior to the bookmobile party, we worked with the parents on a guest list of the child's friends. Then we sent out invitations for the winner. On the day of the party, our Children's librarian arrived at the party ahead of the bookmobile. When all the kids were there, the bookmobile and its staff pulled right up to the winner's house. The kids got on the bus and sat on the benches inside for a story. Here's the order she chose for this party:
SONG: "Happy Unbirthday to You" (sung to the winner; tune "Happy Birthday")
BOOK: Wild About Books by Judy Sierra
Then the kids had time to choose their own books to check out. We asked them to bring their library cards on the invitations.
STORY: The Fox & the Crab: a folktale from China (which was in keeping with our Summer Reading Club theme: "One World, Many Stories"). This story was told with flannelboard pieces on our traveling hook and loop board.
Then the kids left the bookmobile and went over to a table provided by the winner's parents in a garage or shady area to do their crafts.
CRAFTS: Standup bookmobile (a cardboard cutout picture of our Bookmobile that can be assembled into a small bookmobile) and an origami fox (to match "The Fox and the Crab" story).
SNACK: Bookmobile-shaped cutout cookies that one of our Children's staff made, blue punch (our bookmobile is blue!)
EXTRA BOOK IF NEEDED: Bibiloburro by Jeanette Winter
I love this book. The illustrations are very vivid colors and detailed. It's the true story of a Colombian schoolteacher with a passion for reading who had so many books in his house that he decided to take them up high in the mountains to the children there who had no library. So every weekend, he loaded up his books on the back of two burros and made the mountainous trek to deliver them to families far away. He would hold storytimes under the trees for anyone who showed up at his stops. It is nice picture book for the elementary-age crowd.
The parties were a lot of fun and hopefully the beginning of many more grand prizes here!
The Independent, Massillon's local paper, gave us a write-up recently so you can read about that here:
But perhaps the biggest fan of the bookmobile parties was this large farm cat who wandered onto the bookmobile looking for some stories and some petting:
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