PICTURE BOOK EVENT IDEAS

Following are some of ideas for picture book projects and celebrations. Use them during special picture book celebration times (listed at the end of this page) or any time!  

A PICTURE BOOK CELEBRATION!  Organize an event at your library or community center (or even a cozy event with friends in your home).  Invite parents, grandparents, teens, and kids to join in a round-robin reading.. Ask parents and kids to bring a favorite book to share or choose one to read from a book table. Also let people know they can simply listen and enjoy. You can also choose one book to pass around and read together.

BOOK OR AUTHOR THEMED TRIVIA AND PARTIES! One library wrote to tell use they were creating a Seussology Trivia Game, a Seussology Foot Book Dance Party (with dance lessons from the Cat in the Hat), and tongue twisting fun with Seussology rhyming! Sounds like fun!!

POEM ILLUSTRATIONS! Read children’s poetry to kids and ask them to create illustrations to match. (One library offered this program to a group whose age range was 6 to 16!) 

READING TO A THERAPY DOG WHO LOVES STORIES! Invite children to read to a trained therapy dog. Do dogs make great picture book reading buddies? They sure do! Check out www.LibraryDog.com www.DogsOnCall.com and www.BarkDogs.com!

MAKE YOUR VERY OWN PICTURE BOOK PROJECT! Ask kids to listen to a poem and draw pictures of the characters and story. or ask kids to write stories or poems from pictures. or ask kids to both write and draw! Whatever the ages or the activity you choose, with a few extra steps, kids can come away with their own picture books! You can create finished picture books by using a scrapbook or a pre-made blank board book. You can even search for ways to create online picture books. (Our "Fun Art Professor" friend says that one great source for blank board books is www.OrientalTrading.com.)  You can also keep projects simple by using card stock and binding the book with a stapler or with punched holes and ribbons. Kids will love having created their own picture books, and these are wonderful keepsake memories of creative minds and picture book times! 

(Illustration from "The Flower Children: The Little Cousins of the Field and Garden" by Elizabeth Gordon, Illustrated by M. T. Ross, 1910)

WORLD-WIDE CELEBRATION TIMES

• International Children's Book Day - on or around April 2 (founded in 1967; on the date of Hans Christian Anderson's birthday)

• Children's Book Week - a celebration of children's books in early May (dating back to 1913)

• Picture Book Month - a month-long celebration in November