My daughter always takes the book covers off her books when she gets them. They just seem to get in the way when she is reading through the book. I also realized that I too take the cover off before reading a book to my students because it is hard to keep it on while holding the book up and turning the pages.
After accumulating quite a pile of book covers, I decided to use them in a new and creative way. I happened to find a kid’s clothesline at Target on clearance earlier in the week. It is meant to display artwork, but worked just fine for this project. All you need is two pushpins and some string or twine, so don’t go searching for a special clothesline. I collected all of the book covers and draped them one at a time over the string until it was full. Because my daughter has so many book covers (we still didn’t get them all on…time for more string!), I overlapped the covers, being sure to show the titles and enough of the picture on the cover. For books by the same author, I overlapped them more to only show the titles. It turned out to be a great decoration for her room and we can change out the covers as she accumulates new favorites. My daughter looked up at the finished product and said “my covers!!” She was excited to see them again.
So try it in your kid’s room, playroom or your classroom. It’s a great to surround children with literacy and children’s books.
