We have noticed something very extraordinary about students who use book bags for their library books
- they bring their library books back to the library when it is library lesson
- their drink bottle or yoghurt or snack food is never found on their library books
- their library books are never dumped on the floor and trodden on
- the students have a place to put their library books when they are using them at home
- their library books remain in good condition
- these students can check out more books to take home in their book bags
- if by any chance they mislay their library book bag it is found by someone and returned to them or to us
At IICS we do not provide our students with book bags, we simply don’t have the resources to do this BUT the good news is that with the move away from plastic bags many shops are embracing re-usable bags. These bags make great book bags for our students. All we ask is that each child brings a reusable book bag with them to take their library books to and from home.
There is a group in Hong Kong called “Bring me a Book” and they have banks and other organizations sponsor Book Bag libraries. A book bag includes books that have
– Pictures, few words
– Pictures, more words
– Words, few pictures
– Chapter books
– Some books with audio recordings
This reminded us of a presentation we saw at the IASL conference about lending families book bags. I wrote about it on my personal blog. This is something we would like to explore with our friends of the library this year – or with the student librarians. The goal is to encourage whole families to read together and as individuals. The backpacks created in the libraries in Croatia included books for the whole family.
Book bags can lead to some wonderful reading for the whole family. Time to make sure your child has one.
