Libraries are ever-changing and have become much more than dusty book warehouses. Given the depth and breadth of resources and programs at local libraries,
STORYWALK® During the week of November 10-16, 2024, Let's Move in Libraries and the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) teams up for our 4th annual week-long event celebrating the inspiring work of libraries who spearhead StoryWalk(R) programs –
About a year ago or more I saw some chatter about StoryWalks on Facebook. I thought - "How cool is THAT?" but could not figure out how to get one at my current location. Since then, I became a Head Librarian of a different location, one directly on the bike trail, and knew it was time to give it a try. StoryWalk® is a trademarked program, and belongs to the folks at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Vermont. This idea is *NOT* Library Village's idea nor do we take any credit or money for our Story Walks. If you would like to learn about this amazing program's roots, Click HERE. If you want to see some FAQ's on the program which will help you make your own, Click HERE. Essentially, if you credit the creator properly, you are free to use the idea in a not-for-profit setting like a library. Here's what the credit would look like: The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition and the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. OK, essentially a StoryWalk® is a way for families to read together outside, promoting literacy and fitness. The pages of a book are laminated and mounted on stakes and presented one at a time down a trail or throughout a park. They can be spaced as close or as far apart as needed. Families can stroll from one page to the next, or you can encourage movement from one to the next like hopping or skipping. For our first StoryWalk®, I laminated the pages of Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, mounted them on foam core with velcro, and then mounted those on wooden stakes. We did not make the sets as sturdy as the ones listed on the Kellogg-Hubbard library but this is because our StoryWalk® is designed for use near the library and for only hours, so weather is not a factor. With a little help from our Friends group, we have now done 3 StoryWalk®s and can easily make more. I try to use books that are about the same size each time - and reuse the rest of the materials. The approximate cost breaks down like this for us: Two books from the used book store - $6 Velcro - $10 Wooden Stakes - 8 foot long cut in two - $15 Foam Core cut in half - $15 The response has been wonderful! Families have said they love the books we choose, and love the idea. We keep the library copies of the books on display and families like to take them home. Our library has been asked to continue the program at all events, and other branches have asked to borrow our StoryWalk®s for their events as well. We have done three StoryWalk®s in 2014 in three different ways. Duck on a Bike was at our Summer Reading Kickoff party with the story pages about 15-20 feet apart down our bike trail. Next, at the end of the summer, we used The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear at a festival in town. We placed the pages around the perimeter of the festival. Finally we did an indoor StoryWalk® at Christmas Time! We used T'was the Night Before Christmas at an in-house and after hours event. No stakes or boards were necessary for this event. Besides, our Duck on a Bike set was on loan to another library event at the time. Once you have the first kit, adding books to your collection is a breeze. Things we learned from our StoryWalk® program were: know your soil - the soil nearby struggled to hold the stakes, so we modified this by using buckets with the stakes secured inside. Also, our lamination is standard for indoor use so rain will ruin the pages. You can see below how one of our arrows had gotten wet over the summer. I'll be making more arrows soon. Finally, Velcro is great for making the StoryWalk® reusable, but not great on a windy day. Keep your weather and the direction of your stakes in mind. For more information on StoryWalk® please visit the Kellogg-Hubbard Library Page. I'd be happy to answer any questions as well. They are only limited by your imagination. Thanks for stopping by!
A StoryWalk® is a fun activity that places laminated pages from a picture book mounted on posts along an outside path, in store windows, around a playground or park, or anywhere else you can imagine it! The StoryWalk® concept was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and was developed with t
Are you adding a StoryWalk® at your library? Here's what I know about getting publisher permission for StoryWalks®.
Library Story Stroll (Also Called Storywalk®): My family absolutely loves our local library. For how small our town is the library does an amazing job providing activities an events for the town's youth. Holiday parties, animal specialists, guest authors, crafts, clubs, you name our library does…
Have you run a StoryWalk? Have you been to a StoryWalk? They sound amazingly fun! And they are a great way to involve kids in a book – and hopefully interest kids in many more books! “StoryWalk® is an innovative and delightful way for children — and adults! — to enjoy reading and the outdoors … Continue reading Reader’s Advisory: Storywalk titles! →
While you may not be able to go inside libraries this summer to pick out books like usual, one local library has found a way to bring books outside.
Next week marks the start of National Library Week!
Visit the post for more.
The StoryWalk project in Memory Park!
CCPRN recently incorporated a ‘Book Walk’ into our pre-summer picnics. So what exactly is a book walk? A book walk is a way to encourage children to be involved in a story. So here̵…
STORYWALK® During the week of November 10-16, 2024, Let's Move in Libraries and the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) teams up for our 4th annual week-long event celebrating the inspiring work of libraries who spearhead StoryWalk(R) programs –
ASHLAND — While the COVID-19 pandemic has limited traditional, in-person programming at the Ashland Public Library, it hasn’t prevented local library staff from connecting with young readers and their families […]
I have been immersed in my garden and garden house this summer, though the gardening part has been mainly dreaming... The garden house is D...
Explore Southfield Public Library's 3181 photos on Flickr!
Library Story Stroll (Also Called Storywalk®): My family absolutely loves our local library. For how small our town is the library does an amazing job providing activities an events for the town's youth. Holiday parties, animal specialists, guest authors, crafts, clubs, you name our library does…
The StoryWalk® ranks among the most ingenious ideas of the last 20 years. Its beauty comes from its simplicity. It literally refers to the idea of reading a story as you walk (or roll) along a path. From humble origins in Montpelier, Vermont, this idea has spread throughout libraries across North America, and beyond. And in recent years, and especially with libraries closed during COVID-19, public libraries have begun to collaborate with local businesses to create downtown StoryWalk® programs. It is unknown when the first downtown StoryWalk occurred, but in 2016 Ohio’s Tiffin-Seneca Public Library kicked off its summer reading program with a downtown StoryWalk. As community members walked through downtown, they read pages from the story in the windows of 14 businesses, ending up with the last page in the window of the public library. The next year, in 2017, the Gardiner Downtown StoryWalk emerged in Maine through “a collaboration between Literacy Volunteers of Greater Augusta, Gardiner Main Street,” and Gardiner Public Library, with its goals being “to encourage family literacy and introduce people to Water Street businesses.”
Combine fresh air, exercise and books for a fun outdoor family reading experience. by going on a StoryWalk®.
We would like to thank the lovely staff at Ranford Primary School! This library turned out amazingly we are very proud of this project. The library seating with shelving works exceptionally well in this space. The circulation desk that we did was further enhanced with the vinyl lettering the school added.
At our picnic this week I set up another StoryWalk. With many of the pages I added an action suggestion. The families walke...
(Chelsea Update would like to thank Keegan Sulecki for the information in this story.) Chelsea District Library (CDL) recently announced the opening of a StoryBook Trail at Baker Woods Preserve, 11914 Trinkle Road in Lima Township. With support through a ... Read more
Last week was Library and Information Week , so to acknowledge this great initiative and the wonderful work of librarians, we decided to hig...
A book walk is a fun way to change up your reading routine and get students moving. Learn how I do this fun activity with my students!
Even though libraries are citadels of silence, guarding humanity's best thoughts, it doesn't mean that humor is forbidden there. To prove that a giggle can easily accompany a pleasant read, Bored Panda has collected a list of some of the funniest examples of librarian humor.
About a year ago or more I saw some chatter about StoryWalks on Facebook. I thought - "How cool is THAT?" but could not figure out how to get one at my current location. Since then, I became a Head Librarian of a different location, one directly on the bike trail, and knew it was time to give it a try. StoryWalk® is a trademarked program, and belongs to the folks at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Vermont. This idea is *NOT* Library Village's idea nor do we take any credit or money for our Story Walks. If you would like to learn about this amazing program's roots, Click HERE. If you want to see some FAQ's on the program which will help you make your own, Click HERE. Essentially, if you credit the creator properly, you are free to use the idea in a not-for-profit setting like a library. Here's what the credit would look like: The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition and the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. OK, essentially a StoryWalk® is a way for families to read together outside, promoting literacy and fitness. The pages of a book are laminated and mounted on stakes and presented one at a time down a trail or throughout a park. They can be spaced as close or as far apart as needed. Families can stroll from one page to the next, or you can encourage movement from one to the next like hopping or skipping. For our first StoryWalk®, I laminated the pages of Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, mounted them on foam core with velcro, and then mounted those on wooden stakes. We did not make the sets as sturdy as the ones listed on the Kellogg-Hubbard library but this is because our StoryWalk® is designed for use near the library and for only hours, so weather is not a factor. With a little help from our Friends group, we have now done 3 StoryWalk®s and can easily make more. I try to use books that are about the same size each time - and reuse the rest of the materials. The approximate cost breaks down like this for us: Two books from the used book store - $6 Velcro - $10 Wooden Stakes - 8 foot long cut in two - $15 Foam Core cut in half - $15 The response has been wonderful! Families have said they love the books we choose, and love the idea. We keep the library copies of the books on display and families like to take them home. Our library has been asked to continue the program at all events, and other branches have asked to borrow our StoryWalk®s for their events as well. We have done three StoryWalk®s in 2014 in three different ways. Duck on a Bike was at our Summer Reading Kickoff party with the story pages about 15-20 feet apart down our bike trail. Next, at the end of the summer, we used The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear at a festival in town. We placed the pages around the perimeter of the festival. Finally we did an indoor StoryWalk® at Christmas Time! We used T'was the Night Before Christmas at an in-house and after hours event. No stakes or boards were necessary for this event. Besides, our Duck on a Bike set was on loan to another library event at the time. Once you have the first kit, adding books to your collection is a breeze. Things we learned from our StoryWalk® program were: know your soil - the soil nearby struggled to hold the stakes, so we modified this by using buckets with the stakes secured inside. Also, our lamination is standard for indoor use so rain will ruin the pages. You can see below how one of our arrows had gotten wet over the summer. I'll be making more arrows soon. Finally, Velcro is great for making the StoryWalk® reusable, but not great on a windy day. Keep your weather and the direction of your stakes in mind. For more information on StoryWalk® please visit the Kellogg-Hubbard Library Page. I'd be happy to answer any questions as well. They are only limited by your imagination. Thanks for stopping by!
This summer, a professional dream of mine came true. Our library put in our first StoryWalk at a local park. I have always wanted to do one and I'm so grateful that my colleagues were so supportive of the idea. It was truly a team effort! Our first story in the StoryWalk is A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin. She's one of my all-time favorite authors and this story fit in perfectly with our summer reading theme, A Universe of Stories. While you can create StoryWalk posts a number of different ways, our library had funding to order premade frames from StoryWalk Solutions. Our Floyd County Parks & Recreation folks installed them for us and they look really nice. Each frame unscrews at the bottom so you can change out the story. Our amazing marketing coordinator / graphic artist designed the spreads and we physically took apart a couple of copies of the book and glued them in before laminating them to create the spreads for each frame. This was a ton of work and we will definitely be seeking out permissions to use digital images for future stories so that we can create the spreads as digital files and then just print and laminate them. On each spread, Ms. J and I came up with some kind of physical activity or dialogic reading question / talking prompt to encourage interaction and discussion as families walk along the StoryWalk together. The walking path at this park is about three quarters of a mile and we ordered 20 posts, which is what I am told is the usual amount that libraries order. For A Big Mooncake for Little Star, that allowed us to include the entire book, plus an extra post in the middle where we placed a little activity break. Post 1 has the cover and info about the StoryWalk. Post 2 has the gorgeous endpapers. Posts 3-19 have the spreads from the story with one "activity break" in the middle (Post 13 below). And Post 20 has Grace Lin's author's note and more library info. This is a permanent installation and we plan on changing out the featured stories quarterly-ish. My hope is that we'll be able to install more StoryWalks in our community! I know you probably have questions, so hit me up in the comments and I'll write a follow-up post to answer everything. And if you have a StoryWalk in your community, I would love to know what's worked for you and what your favorite stories have been! ETA (April 2021): The question I'm asked most often about StoryWalks is how to get permission from publishers to reprint picture books for use in StoryWalks and I finally have a post all about it! Click through to read more about that! The second most frequently asked question I get asked is if I can provide the beautiful layout designed by our talented Marketing Coordinator and I'm afraid the answer to that is thank you for agreeing it's beautiful, but no.
Join us in this celebration of how librarians across the United States, and beyond, work with community partners to weave together reading, the outdoors, and exercise!
The StoryWalk at Medina's Mugrage Park blends nature book with nature.
Visit AL!VE, and take a walk through EXPLORE in PRESERVE to read the newest children’s book on the Charlotte Community Library’s StoryWalk®. Always open during normal operating hours. Enjoy a pictu
Post updated 12/17/20 after reviewing an ARC for We Laugh Alike, 1/26/21 to add a bonus sixth title. Make sure to check out my 2024 post with three more StoryWalk titles! I collaborated on three St…
CCPRN recently incorporated a ‘Book Walk’ into our pre-summer picnics. So what exactly is a book walk? A book walk is a way to encourage children to be involved in a story. So here̵…
