Middle School Monday: DIY Book Posters by Julie Stivers

DIY Book Posters for the Win.

I’m almost embarrassed to post this because it is so easy! So simple. But, then again, who doesn’t love hearing about something EASY we can do with disproportionately huge benefits?

When I started at a new school last year, substantial updates were necessary to the space. I needed COLOR for the walls and went looking for book posters. They were few and far between, and when I finally found any, they featured covers with either no characters—or only white characters.

I was in the process of radically changing the collection to be more reflective of my students—and reality. I needed my walls to mirror that. As I started buying books and looking at those gorgeous covers, a lightbulb went off. THERE were my posters. RIGHT in front of me.

To get the crispest images, I took the actual books to OfficeDepot and simply color copied and enlarged them to 11” by 17” size. {If you have a color copier to do this in your school, lucky you!} I then simply took them back to my school and laminated them—voila, engaging book posters! Ready to hang. For about a dollar apiece.

I’ve lined the space above my wall book shelves with these posters. I’ve also placed them on the endcaps of my waist-high library shelves. Instead of having fiction/non-fiction/graphic novel signage, I simply use these book cover posters to advertise the sections.

I KNEW it would add interest and make the library look more inviting. The best part, though, has been that students use these posters to ask for books! When my poster for Yummy by G. Neri went up, it sent ripples throughout the school and I had students clamoring for a copy. These posters can be another great tool in our arsenal to increase circulation.  

Plus, those covers are gorgeous.

I’d love to hear about DIY projects in your libraries!

Julie Stivers

@BespokeLib

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