What is the Picture Book Maker Craft Project?

I realized I never explained what this project even is! Apologies!

Basically, I design book-based maker projects/crafts, print them on stickers, and place those stickers inside of the books in our collection. Each book containing a maker project is marked with a lime green spine sticker, allowing for perusing patrons to spot them from the shelf. This initiative is really fun to work on, and has provided lots of interesting opportunities for collaboration.

Because of the small size of the MCL, our children’s collection really dominates the space. So far all of the books with prompts inside are picture books, but I have plans to include graphic novels, YA fiction, and juvenile/adult nonfiction. My hope is that by creating a clear line between hands-on learning and literacy, “informal” educational institutions, like the Millvale Community Library, will be able to fill the voids caused by cuts to arts programming in schools. The prompts are inside of books that can be checked out and taken home, expanding the reach of my maker program. It also creates opportunities for connections book-based and maker-based learning.

So far we have 12 titles with maker project stickers inside. The prompts vary from step-by-step instructions to open-ended explorations, and they are based on everything from the content of the story to the style of illustration. I’ve had visiting educators design projects based on books that could work in their learning environments or classrooms.

My plan is to develop the collection at the MCL and make the stickers available for purchase. I would love to see this project exist in a world outside of Millvale, and reach learners and educators in lots of different spaces.

I have a stack of project ideas created by a few awesome educators who came for the Agency by Design cohort meeting. I used this project as a design challenge, getting the educators to pick a book and create a hands-on learning prompt inspired by it in some way. Some of the ideas were really amazing, and I was so excited to see them in the books!