Three reading rooms opened all on one day near Oak Lawn, Illinois, in the Oak Lawn-Hometown School District. Click here to read more about the opening day in our blog.
The theme, “Read books…it opens up the world to you!” is beautifully encapsulated in a mural of the world, which takes up most of the wall, with the paler green continents surrounded by deep hunter green oceans on a sky-blue, bright yellow-starred- and puffy-cloud-filled background, transforming the concrete block. This special corner of the library had been transformed into a reading sanctuary for students. Perched about the perimeter of the earth mural are silhouetted houses and buildings of various colors around the edge, roofs pointing outward. Encouraging book-themed mini-posters keep patrons upbeat. Upward-reaching red and blue balloons are festively anchored at the entrance.
A 12-foot-long charcoal gray upholstered sectional composes one ‘wall’ of the reading room, adorned with red, blue and chartreuse throw pillows, while a couple of tubular-framed chartreuse-fabric chairs each with a magenta-background twin-owl pillow beckon readers to get comfy with a stuffed or human friend! Two teal bookcases under the mural are topped with a more standard-hued globe of the world, in the midst of several standing, opened books, inviting students to discover their treasures, with a stuffed kangaroo and her joey on one end, and a stuffed Piglet on the other watching over the readers. White popcorn-holed bins for quick access to storybooks populate the shelves. The 5’ window, obscured by the audio-visual screen is framed with purple curtains. Perhaps this will be the site of future video book reviews…
A corner red table has e-books in their chargers patiently waiting for students to scoop them up and journey to a new land. The coordinating primary red rectangular “coffee table” centered on the plush purple carpet shows off some favorite books around a royal blue bin with red fluency phones. These amazingly simple tools can be utilized by students to gauge the enunciation and expression of their vocal reading, encouraging independent reading, self-expression, and building self-confidence. The black metal rotating book rack near the entrance is completely packed with even more books!
