One of my favorite programs in our library is our BOOKHUB Takeout Station.
It started during the pandemic as a way to deliver books to the teachers in their classrooms. It evolved into the BOOKHUB Takeout Station, a special place in our library where I pick out and display 34-36 wonderful new books each month.
The teachers can stop by and pick one up to take back and read to their students in the classroom. They don't check it out or worry about writing anything down. They are just asked to drop it back off at the BOOKHUB Takeout Station when they have finished.
It truly has made a difference by bringing so many wonderful new books to our students and teachers through special read alouds and thoughtful discussions.
Let me share how I set this up so you can bring a BOOKHUB Takeout Station to your community too.
First, I created a BOOKHUB Takeout Station poster. I use to have an 18x 24 inch poster in our library, but in our new space I made it 8.5 x 11 inches.
I then took the same image, took the wording off the takeout container, and took a screen shot to use in my BOOKHUB posters each month.
Next, I pick out the book that will go into that months BOOKHUB. I spend a lot of time throughout the year gathering new books that I can use in the BOOKHUB. I want them to be mostly newer published books and ones that are new to our library. I tie them into seasonal themes each month.
This month, I included several books for Hispanic Heritage Month which is September 15-October 15th. I got a lot of new book ideas from the Follett Titlewave list I
put together here. I also included fall and Halloween books, and lots of fun ones to read aloud.
I take screen shots of each book cover and...
...upload the screen shots to
PicMonkey. I LOVE using PicMonkey for the collages.
I download the final book cover collage and take it into the BOOKHUB Menu poster.
I made a poster template to fit my 11 x 8.5 inch frame that I will use every month in our BOOKHUB display.
You can find the
template for this poster here so you can use it too.
I then took the collage that I made in PicMonkey and popped it into the poster template. Each month, I will add one so I can keep track of what I use all throughout the year.
I love how they turn out each month! The kids and teachers love them too!
I put this in the BOOKHUB display in our library. I also print it off each month and give to our teachers. They put it up in their classrooms and mark off the books when they have read them. The kids really enjoy keeping track and looking for the next one from the poster.
I also email it to them and add to our social media for the library so families can see what is in BOOKHUB each month too.
