Celebrating Book Week in a secondary school can be tricky. Some of those traditional ways we celebrate, like character parades, can be hard to fit in around curriculum-focused class time or sporting events, which take priority. It can also be hard to engage teenagers in Book Week activities. So I’ve focused a lot of my Book Week attentions and planning to my library lessons. Here are some of the ways I’ve celebrated and promoted Book Week in library lessons.
Author visit with a notables author
Hosting an author visit is incredibly special. We were privileged to welcome a Sophie Beer to the school the year her book Thunderhead was a Notable for Younger Readers Book of the Year. Our lessons in the lead up to her visit included reading sections from the book, doing a quick author overview, and creating our own self portraits.
Picture book of the year shortlist shadow judging
Using the foldable book in the IDTL Book Week activity book, we read one or two picture books each lesson and review them. Students then vote for their favourite and why. I’ve done this by reading the physical books aloud to the class and also used the recordings on Story Box Hub (particularly helpful after having to read A Leaf Called Greaf for the 12th time and still breaking down in tears).
Book Hooks for the Younger Reader and Older Reader Shortlist books
Using the book hooks shared in the IDTL Book Week book, I’ve book talked all twelve of the younger reader and older reader shortlisted books in our lessons. This has been fun to then come back to once the winners have been announced to see which one won. It also gives students more of an insight into the Shortlist and gives better engagement than just seeing these titles on a display.
Escape Room Challenges
I do love a good escape room and we’ve done quite a few in the school library over the years. One year we had a mystery escape room set up for Book Week, which students could access during lunchtimes and after school, but I also used it during library lessons.
Book Week colouring in
High school students love colouring in. Using the pages provided in the IDTL book week book, I’ve printed colouring in pages and played an audiobook or read aloud to students as they colour. They love doing this.
Bookmark craft
Making bookmarks is always fun and it’s another activity I’ve had success with in library lessons. Using strips of cardboard and a range of pens and washi tapes, students enjoyed making themed bookmarks. I’ve also challenged them to design book marks for one of the shortlist notable books, a nice activity to pair with reading the book hooks.
Introducing all Short Listed books
For this activity, I placed all six books from each category onto a table, six tables in total one for each category, and divided the students into groups. Each group had to move to a table, look at the covers, read the back of the books and introduce themselves to each of the categories. It was utter chaos but lots of fun and an easy way to introduce the students to a lot of titles in just two weeks (we did three categories each week). When you are short of time, you make things work.
Picture Book Unit
This year I’m going to use the CBCA Shortlist Picture books as an intro for a unit on visual literacy. We’ll focus less on judging the books like we did when shadow judging, and more on understanding picture books and visual literacy through these incredible books. Again, I’ll read the books aloud and use Story Box Hub interchangeably, as it’s such a great resource. I’ll also be using the Grown Up’s Guide to Picture Books by Lara Cain Gray
