Book Display Idea - Annual Reading Challenge Suggestions

 If you need a good idea for a fill-in book display, you can always return to the many reading challenges that pop-up in December and January. These challenges sometimes have an overall theme based upon a genre and sometimes they are very broad. Each month, a prompt to read a certain kind of book is presented. "Read a book that takes place in [city/country]" or '"read a book There are months where readers will struggle to find a title. In addition, some readers will discover a reading challenge that they didn't know existed. This might be an idea you reserve until June when you can set it up a half way through the challenge theme. While I am on record as advising against too many signs and decorations on a display, remember to include information about the challenge and where patrons can find out more. 

Your book clubs can use these challenges for those months where there is a struggle to agree upon a title. There are challenges which focus on books by particular groups of authors such as queer authors or Black authors in addition to genre focused ones. 

These challenges are also a great way to get some attention focused on your back list. 

Here are some challenges you can use: 

• The Candid Cover has what is perhaps the most comprehensive list of reading challenges. Olivia has done a magnificent job providing a wide variety of challenges including those for kids, those on Instagram, and bingo reading challenges. 

• Goodreads has an annual challenge that may be appealing for those readers who use the site. It's centered around readers picking a goal as to how many books they will read for the year. Some find this approach invigorating and drives them to read more and some find that it just causes anxiety. You can suggest novellas or shorter non-fiction to help patrons "catch up." The Carnegie-Stout Public Library (Iowa) has their own version of this type of challenge. 

• Book Riot titles their annual challenge "Read Harder." There are 24 ideas to help readers "explore settings, characters, formats, genres, and perspectives that might be outside of your reading norms" The New York Public Library created a list of suggestions in December that you can use to springboard your own suggestions. 

• The Massachusetts Center for the Book has a reading challenge that would work for any genre of fiction as well as non-fiction. Your local consortia, county system etc can create one for you patrons as part of a larger program. 

• Pop Sugar has a popular reading challenge. There are 45 reading prompts for the year and 5 advanced prompts. This kind of challenge may appeal to those who like to gamify their reading or those looking for a challenge that allows the reader to pick from a list rather than be limited to just one. 

May Book Display Ideas

 May has a variety of traditional and more adventurous reasons to set up book displays. Remember that you should use your programs and local events as inspiration as well. 

Here are some suggestions for May book displays: 

• May Day- There are a variety of reasons to celebrate May day. It's the traditional start to summer. You could use Midsommer (the film) as an inspiration and include some non-fiction on wicca in addition to folk horror. 
  It's also International Workers' Day which would mean titles about the labor movement and work in general. 
• Star Wars Day: May the 4th be with you - Don't limit this display to just Star Wars films and titles. Look for other space operas in your collection which could use some exposure and put out some read alikes and watch alikes for Star Wars. 
• Mother's Day (2nd Sunday)- Besides the more obvious fiction and non-fiction about mother/child relationships and mothering in general, think about a "Bad Mothers" display. Books like Clay McLeod Chapman's What Kind of Mother can be used for this kind of display. (It would also be a great title for a display.)
• Harvey Milk Day- Pride isn't just for June. Remember the openly gay man to be elected to public office in California by putting up a display about the LGBTQ+ rights struggles of the 70's, California in the 70's, and include biographical works of other 70's gay icons.
• National Road Trip Day (Friday before Memorial Day)- I like to create a display with audiobook suggestions for car trips. This is a great way to integrate your digital collection into a display in your library. You can mirror a list online with one in your library. 
• Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month - Remember to look broadly at your collection and include genre fiction. A display of mysteries or romance would be a great way to introduce fans of those genres to new authors. 
• Jewish American Heritage Month- Again, look broadly at your collection. Think beyond just books about the Holocaust. I have a masters degree focusing on the Holocaust but like any community, the Jewish American experience is greater than just tragedy. 
• Mental Health Awareness Month- This would be a great display to pair with local resources or even a program. Add information patrons can take with them about any local agencies or groups. 
• Memorial Day- This is a holiday to honor those who died while serving in the US armed forces. Keep this in mind as you plan displays and any active or passive programs. Having your local veterans groups table in your library or someone from the VA come in to explain available services would be a way to tie a display into programming and make new connections in your community. 
• Cinco de Mayo - Please research the history of this holiday and what actually happened on that day before you set up a display. It's not really about tacos and margaritas. There are plenty of Mexican and Mexican-American authors you can promote from your collection. 

Summer Scares 2024

 I will recap PLA 2024 at the end but there has been a lot of good talk about upcoming horror novels at the convention. I wanted to remind everyone that Summer Scares, a partnership between the Horror Writers of America, BookList and NoveList, is a great opportunity to promote horror outside of October. 

I can guarantee that your patrons don't only think that beach reads are cheery and light. Living near the beach, I see people check out plenty of thrillers, suspense, and horror novels to take with them. Don't prejudge what your patrons are interested in and seasonally limit what portions of your collection that you market to them.

There are adult, YA, and middle grade titles selected each year. They are always back list titles that are in print. An author is selected as spokesperson and this year it is Clay McLeod Chapman who is an excellent author to suggest to patrons who think they don't read horror. You can find out more about his books here. 

There are free webinars with the authors available courtesy of BookList. The Springfield-Greene Co Library (MO) creates a programming guide each year that has ideas for how you can include Summer Scares in your summer programming. 

Becky Spratford, Readers Advisory expert and secretary of the Horror Writers, maintains a regularly updated list of resources on her blog, RA For All: Horror. Her blog includes information about the 9 books selected for this year, a link to the programming guide, webinars, and other information to help you shake up summer reading by adding some horror to your programming, displays, and book suggestions. 

Book Display Reference - Plus Size/Curvy Characters

Day one of PLA 2024 included the panel Anti-Racist Readers Services: Beyond the Basics, sponsored by NoveList, and presented by Becky Spratford (RA for All), Robin Bradford, and Yaika Sabat. Becky has kindly posted the the slides on her blog. Becky and Robin have a course with NoveList called Actively Anti-Racist Readers Services to Readers if you would like to learn more. 

A question was asked about diversity in regards to human bodies, specifically looking for books with characters who are plus size or curvy. There are readers and librarians who have curated lists that you can draw from to create lists for patron and staff use. Even publishers have created lists. The titles can be highlighted on your social media as well to draw attention to the fact that your collection includes titles like this and even that they exist at all. Include them in your book displays and lists. 

Take clues from the titles of the lists you do find and improve your search. As you will see, the titles of these lists vary as far as what sort of language is used.  Here are some lists to get you started.You may find that this is an area where your collection is lacking. 

Users of Goodreads have created a variety of lists you can use to start your lists. Once you find one, Some examples include: 
Plus Size Romance Books
True Plus Size Romance Books That I Adore
Plus Sized Mystery Protagonists
Fat Acceptance and Fat Activism
Listopia: Fat Positive Book Lists
Listopia: Plus Size Book Lists: There is a wide selection of lists on this page including one which references covers with plus sized characters, YA titles, and queer characters. 

Libraries who use their websites for passive readers advisory have included this topic in their lists:

Boston Public Library: 18 Plus-Sized Romance Novels 
Pima County Public Library: Read Harder 2021 Fat Positive Romance

Richland Library: Romancing the Fat Girl Plus Sized Heroines
Austin Public Library: Fat Liberation for Teens (YA)
King County LIbrary System: Fat-Positive Fiction, Comics, & Memoirs

All About Romance - Reviews tagged Plus Size Heroine
Buzzfeed - Books with Curvy Characters that Don't Center on Weight Loss
BookRiot - Plus-Size Romances to Read this Summer
BookRiot- These are the 30 Best Body Positive Books You Can Buy
Epic Reads - 15 Young Adult Books Featuring Fat, Female Protagonists
Reactor Mag - Looking for Body Positivity and Fat Protagonists in YA Fantasy
The Cozy Mystery List Blog - Mystery Book Themes: Full Figured Sleuths (Plus Size Sleuths)
Danica Flynn- Where Are The Plus Sized Men in Romance? 

The Curvy Fashionista  - Because We Love a Great Book, Here are 30+ Plus Size Centered Must-Reads!  This list does include non-fiction

If you are going to create a list or display centered on this theme, include some biographies and other non-fiction. There are self-help, biographies, and books about body positivity and fat activism.