Ways in Which We've Made World Book Week a Success

I'm going to run down how we approached World Book Week this year, it's been a resounding success and didn't break the bank.

I decided to run an activity every day of the week. Was it exhausting? Yes, but it was worth it in the end. Starting in Sept, I gather up books to give away specifically for this week. To promote this week I did the following, starting one month beforehand:

• Sent a letter home to parents.
• Emailed all tutors 1 slide with all of our events listed on it. 
• Emailed all students of the school the same slide listed above.
• Had another graphic advertising our dress-up day circulating on screens throughout the school. 
• Emailed all staff about our events, reminding them that they too can take part in the events. 
• Spoke to 900 students through their Key Stage 3 Library lessons over a period of 2 weeks, promoting and advertising all of our events.
• Created a built-in competition aimed specifically at World Book Week where students made homemade comic books & zines to prepare them for a manga artist event.
• Visited tutor time (homerooms) to promote all of our events with mini-quizzes and bookmark prizes to keep the excitement going.
• Spoke at whole school assembly, reaching 1,800 students where I promote books and our activities. 
• Used the school newsletter to reach parents and carers a second time on all of our upcoming activities. 
• Used staff briefings and bulletins to remind all staff of everything we have going on in the library. 

Here's how the week played out, all of our activities took place during lunchtime except for the Masked Reader which ran all week.

Masked Reader: I filmed teacher wearing masks I borrowed from the Drama Dept reading from books. I then altered their speech using iMovie. I sent the videos to tutors who showed their tutor groups the videos all week. The group that guessed correctly were awarded chocolates. 

Monday: Book Basketball Deathmatch. We had over 50 students sign up, which is about the maximum for this kind of event. All we needed was to borrow a Nerf basketball hoop and ball from a willing member of my family. I then put together a multiple choice quiz. The rules of the game can be found here. I will warn you, it will get rowdy and competitive. Winning team won bookmarks and free books. 

Tues: Our Bookling Book Award has grown a lot since we started in 2017. We decided to have a big event this year with a quiz that saw over 60 students attend. We had a great event that ended with the reveal of the winning book. I had everything run on a PowerPoint with music to make it more interactive and fun. More details on our book award can be found here. Winners of the book quiz got free books. 

We also had an author event on Tues. The amazing Sonia Leong visited for the day, delivering a series of fantastic manga workshops for years 7-9. Did this cost us money? Yes, but an author event is definitely worth it. I made part of her visit a competition, students who made mini-comics or zines and submitted them to me had a chance to meet Sonia for an extra workshop. I had over 100 submissions and was able to bring in around 65 students in the end.  Overall Sonia spoke to over 450 students during the day. I've discussed the impact an author event can have here. I am fully aware that we are lucky to have author events and I am aware this is not a possibility for all librarians. My hope is that the article linked above can help portray their benefits to the powers that be. 

Wed: I hired a badge maker from the local party shop and we made badges. I had over 100 students attend this. This was not overly expensive to hire and easy to do. Students absolutely love making their own badges, this is something I work into the budget every year knowing we will have a huge uptake in visitors to the library.

Thurs: World Book Day. Anyone who wanted to dress up could. The week before I visited whole school assembly, speaking to 1,800 students, promoting comic books, manga, middle grade and YA books and of course World Book Day in general. We had over 150 students attend the quiz at lunch, all of them dressed up. I could see more students dressed up who chose not to attend the quiz so I don't know the actual number, but it was a good turnout for me. We will award a prize for best costume on the Monday during Whole School Assembly. 

Fri: LEGO Building Tournament. I have LEGO donated by parents in addition to LEGO I brought from home just for this event. It's a simple concept that brings in a lot of students. We had approximately 60 students take part, both in their teams and as judges or spectators. Teams are given timed tasks - 3 minutes to build a scene from their favourite film, etc. We have 5 rounds, students judge each creation out of 10. Winners receive free books and bookmarks. It is absolute mayhem, I play music and act as a carnival barker for the most part. 

In the end, 250 books were borrowed from the library over the course of the week, dozens of books were given out as prizes, the events reached close to 800 students. It was a huge success that took a lot of work but has hopefully made a mark on the students and created some new fans of the library.