Display Away: Inspiration for Teen Displays and Reader's Advisory

Struggling to come up with your next teen book display? Lost the thread on what's trending and popular? Look no further than  publishers! They want us to find their books as much as we want to get them to our patrons. Their teen-specific websites are a great launching point for display ideas and reader's advisory.

Epic Reads by Harper Collins and Simon Teen by Simon & Schuster both offer tons of articles and suggested teen titles. They have posts of the most anticipated upcoming books, themed lists, read-alikes, author chats, and more.

Recently, Epic Reads recently shared lists for Enemies-to-Lovers Romance, Heartstopper Book Recs, Books with Competitions, and Black Sci-Fi & Fantasy. While over at Simon Teen, they also have full free reads and extended excerpts from their catalog of teen titles.

Visit Epic Reads and Simon Teen, to get started on your next display or reader's advisory list!

Stealthy Book Promos for Teens

In a recent blog post from YALSA's Hub blog, Megan Nigh provides suggestions on stealthy ways to entice teens to books. She writes: "Getting books into your library is one half of the equation, but the other half is getting them into the hands of your teens. Handselling can be effective, but we can’t always be there for every teen looking for their next read. So how do we engage and entice teens to pick up a book? Check out some ideas that worked for us!"

Please stop here to read the full post [Passive Book Promotion to Teens. Nigh, Megan. The Hub blog. March 21, 2025.]

Round Up - Display Ideas

Image by Gustavo Pires Bertaco from Pixabay

Lately, there have been some great posts with bloggers letting their creativity-flag fly sky high. With no further ado, check out these posts with ideas for displays and room decor  bling!

At Teen Services Underground, agent Sandra Rosa has some quick display ideas for teens for when your creativity tank is low. Stop here to read and see her sample book displays.[Simple Display Ideas For When You Get Stuck. SandraRosa. Teen Services Underground. October 12, 2022.]

Hafuboti, a blog by the very creative Rebecca McCorkindale, has been awash in decoration ideas and related passive programming in their youth areas. Stop here and also stop here - ok, and here (!) for two blog posts with awesome ideas and themes to spark your own ideas! 

[2021 Children's Library Themes. McCorkindale, Rebecca. Hafuboti blog. October 14, 2022 and ]

[Decemberly 2021. McCorkindale, Rebecca. Hafuboti blog. October 12, 2022.]

[It's Februberry!  McCorkindale, Rebecca. Hafuboti blog. October 17, 2022.]

Teentober Displays!

Our friends at Teen Services Underground want to make sure you are making the most of Teentober.  And new ideas for book displays are always welcome.

Their agent writes: "Book displays are fun at anytime of the year. But October was always a great month for Teen book displays. I was lucky at Grapevine Public Library to have multiple locations to do teen/YA displays. During October we would do a Teentober display that had teen favorites. I would leave out a box during August and September where teens could write their favorite books and use that to fill the display."

To read over their ideas, stop here [Teentober Book Display Ideas. Teen Services Underground blog. October 10, 2022.]

Experimenting with Teen Book Bundles

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

We have seen many examples of book bundles for youth. In this recent Teen Librarian Toolbox blog post, Karen Jensen really breaks down the process in an experiment she tried to increase circulation. Her goal was to "resurrect" older titles that were no longer as popular as they once were and were in storage.

She writes: "By day, I work at the Fort Worth Public Library system in the Collection Development department (important note: this is my private and personal blog, they just let me talk about the cool stuff we do there sometimes). FWPL is a 17 branch system and like all large systems, we have branches of varying sizes. This means that for some of the smaller branches as we get new books in, older titles with less circulation are moved into a type of storage at our largest branch. Patrons can place holds on the titles and still get them sent out, but most of the titles end up “dead” in a few years, which is the nature of the beast. However, I wanted to do an experiment and see if I could utilize the concept of book bundles to increase our overall teen fiction circulation. And using these so called “dead” titles (really, storage titles), was the best starting place for my experiment."

This post is a fascinating read and you can find it here. [Creating Teen Book Bundles to Increase Circulation, an Experiment. Jensen, Karen. Teen Librarian Toolbox blog. School Library Journal. August 24, 2022.]

Virtual Variety: Staff Reads

Lindy Liedl from the Rice Lake Public Library returns with her monthly column on all things virtual to help you connect with your teen patrons!

Are you sharing staff reads on your social media? You should! This is a great way to encourage check outs and connect with your patrons. Our lists always look entirely different and patrons like seeing the variety. This could even be expanded to “recent library materials enjoyed by staff” if you want to hype up your collections.

 

Our staff enters their current check outs (the ones they choose to share) into a shared Google spreadsheet–or they email a list to the post-designing staff member. This person then finds cover images of the titles and makes an adorable image post on Canva, rotating staff every week.

 

Here’s my recent one! I have a specific interest in graphic novels. Also, at the time I was really into cookbooks, but there’s some TV series there too!  If you’re in a reading slump, there’s no shame in filling a post with movies. It’s fun to see where everyone’s interests take them.

Credits: Post idea from Claire Parrish-Lane, this image created by Riley Bartsch

 

Cool Links from Teen Librarian Toolbox

In a better-late-than-never-moment, I recently stumbled across a saved June blog post from my favorite teen librarian blog site, Teen Librarian Toolbox in SLJ. 

Karen Jensen, who often uses the blog as a sort of archive of cool ideas she would like to share (and use herself), gathered a number of interesting links including display ideas (and templates); an intriguing article of book banning and how it impacts kids' right to read and a a link to a survey on why teens read.

Good stuff.

Stop here to read and access the resources. [Link Round Up for June 2022: Creative Displays, Important Info on Book Banning and More. Jensen, Karen.  Teen Librarian Toolbox blog. SLJ. June 15, 2022.]

Quick and Easy Teen Book Displays

Abby Seymour, E.D. Locke Public Library, McFarland, WI is a member of our Wisconsin Teen Librarian Services Group. She shares her experiences with creating quick and easy teen book displays for your library.

Putting books on display is my super subtle way of screaming “PLEASE TAKE THESE BOOKS, TEENS!” Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t have a lot of display space in my teen section (just one shelving unit and one small table) so I try to put some good thought into the displays I make. I leave the display up for a maximum of a month, but my real goal is to have a new display every 2-3 weeks. 

Most of my inspiration comes from looking at lists of books and checking to see if I have enough books in that category/genre/theme to make a display. For example, I might come across an article called “22 Books That Prove the Bond Between Sisters is Eternal” and think that a display about YA books featuring sisters would be a great display! Then I would check how many books on that list are currently available at my library and if there are enough to fill my display, we’re good to go! Next task is making a display sign, which I usually make on Canva. Most of the inspiring book lists I find come from Epic Reads, Book Riot, and Buzzfeed Books. 

In general, my teen book displays fall into one of the following three categories:

Seasonal Displays

Pretty self explanatory! I put out romance books in the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, horror/thriller books during October to get into the Halloween spirit, cozy winter reads before Christmas, and last September I featured books that take place at boarding schools. Don’t forget Black History Month and Pride Month! Don’t feel like doing a mainstream holiday? Look at the random holidays coming up, like on National Umbrella Day, put books on display that have umbrellas on the cover! 

 

Always Relevant 

You have got to have a few of these display ideas in your back pocket! These are displays that can be put up no matter the time of year or what’s going on in the world. The very easiest display is to simply pick a genre and put those books on display. It’s as simple as grabbing a stack of fantasy books and making a sign with a dragon and a sword! Rinse and repeat with all the other genres you can think of. Similarly, do a display featuring graphic novels or new releases.

 

Similar Covers

Another fun angle on this is putting books on display with similar covers. An easy one would be to grab books that have blue covers. Rinse and repeat with all the colors of the rainbow! You could also do books with people on the covers or books that have a person’s name in the title. Here is my display that featured duologies:

Viral Moments 

These are the displays you can’t do much to prepare for and are centered around the latest viral phenomenon/zeitgeist moment. Ask your teens about what’s trending! Similarly, displays can be made around the newest blockbuster movie or latest music album everyone’s talking about. For example, here’s a display I made last fall when Taylor Swift came out with her version of Red. 

When all anyone could talk about was Noodles the Pug and whether or not it was a Bones Day or No Bones Day, I made a quick and easy display on it. 

These are the hardest kind of displays to make and we’re all bound to miss some viral moment (or discover them embarrassingly late). My only advice is to pay attention to what your teens are discussing the most or, when in doubt, just ask them!   

We're always looking to connect with other young adult services librarians in WI! If you, or someone you know, wants to join our monthly meetings, please contact Taylor Wilcox at twilcox@waupacalibrary.org.

Just Wondering - What to Do with Winners?

This month's column by Manitowoc (WI) Public Library Youth Librarian Susie Menk is thinking about award winning books and media and how we highlight them - or don't. And she's wondering....what do you think? 

Since the Youth Media Awards are fresh on everyone’s mind, I thought we could talk more about the award winning books.  My topic today is what do you do with the award winners?

That’s kind of an open-ended question, so let me narrow it down a bit.  Several years back when I began working at my library, staff told me that after the announcement of award winners and honor winners I was to pull these books so staff could update the records and place award stickers on the books. We had stickers for the Caldecott and the Newbery award winners and honor books.  But, we didn’t put stickers on any other award winning books.  

When I went back to school for my library degree I remember learning about all the different ALA categories that books could win awards for—audiobooks, non-fiction books, Coretta Scott King Award books and more.  As the years have progressed the Youth Media Awards have encompassed more and more diverse and inclusive book awards and I am super glad about that.  

But….and here is my question, what do libraries do to draw attention to these books?  Do we put stickers on them and place them on display?  Or highlight them somehow?  Obviously, if the books won awards they deserve recognition and usage.  As librarians we should be recommending these titles to our patrons and highlighting their finer points too.  

This year as I eagerly awaited the announcement of the winners, I thought about what that meant for these books in my library.  As time has gone on, my library has opted to only put stickers on the spines of the Caldecott and Newbery winners.  No longer do we denote honor books for these awards and we don’t include any other annual awards either. How am I to get my co-workers and patrons excited about these books if I don’t have a way of drawing attention to them?  

In recent years, I started compiling a list of the winners on a single page handout that I display along with the award winning titles.  This list and the display features books from ALL the categories of winners, not just the Caldecott and Newbery.  I have nothing against the Caldecott and Newbery awards, but there are so many other award winning books that seem to get lost in the shuffle of the two “biggies”.  What can we do to make sure our patrons are noticing these other award winners?

So, what do you do with your award winning books?  Stickers? Displays? Lists?  I’d love to hear what you have found that works for your library.  

Thinking Outside the Display Box

Along with re-imagining programming during the COVID crisis, we have had to adapt many other services during library full and partial closures. Now that libraries have re-opened to the public again, many of the services we adjusted and adapted can still be offered. 

Innovation is at the heart of Ranganathan's Fifth Law of Library Science: "The library is a growing organism." During the difficult months of the pandemic, we saw that law in action as library staff pushed to continue offering meaningful support and service to their communities.  The level of sharing and invention that took place was astonishing. And, in true "Fifth Law" fashion, many of the adaptations are finding a more permanent place in our ongoing service plans.

Finding ways to highlight the collection and books when browsing was limited has been a particular challenge during closures. A recent ALSC blog post shares some thoughts and a great idea or two on how one library solved that problem. 

You can read about here.

WVLS Bitmoji Library Making Tutorial

In a recent blog post, YSS board member Taylor Wilcox shared her experience and practical tips on creating a teen space using bitmoji. It's a great way to connect in a positive way with teens.

In December, Anne Hamland at WI Valley Library Service (WVLS), created a short 13 minute tutorial on creating a bitmoji library as one of their Digital Bytes. The tutorial also links to an instruction/resource page. It's a great way to enhance your services in a fun way!

Digital Bytes, a series containing over 60 CE tidbits, are available for free on WVLS' website.

So You Want To Start A Bitmoji Library Space?

                                         

Our library is back to computer-use and curbside services only, meaning that our teen patrons aren’t able to come in and explore our collection the way that they normally would: Through browsing, cover admiration, and asking for recommendations from their Teen Librarian. On top of that, I’ve heard many of them say that they just don’t use or really know how to find new books by using our library catalog. I get it, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s heard this. But how could we help our teens browse through the collection in a way that’s appealing to them? How could we share new and exciting titles with them in a way that was engaging and appealing to them? 

Let's Get Started: 

Well, for starters, let’s take our Teen Spaces to a virtual format that’s visually appealing, interactive, and easy-to-use. One of my co-workers mentioned an article about libraries and classrooms using Bitmoji spaces for their patrons to explore their collections and I loved that idea! But where should I start? And what did I want to include in our virtual space? 

What Do I Need?:

To start, I needed a Bitmoji avatar, a Google Slides presentation, and a picture from my department that our patrons might recognize. I made myself a Bitmoji and started a brand new, untouched Google Slides presentation. Before organizing my page, I had to figure out what would be necessary and helpful to my teens. I knew that this new webpage needed to offer my teen patrons access to our library resources, be easy to follow, and, while we were at it, promote our teen programs and activities.

Promote Your Collection!:

As I mentioned earlier, we’re limited to curbside services, so I needed to find the best way to show off our newly added books in our collection. When I took my background photo for the slide, I intentionally cleared off one shelf so I could use it to display my virtual collection. Then, I found images of each book that I wanted to display and pasted those on top of the bookshelf. After this, I manually linked each book image to their records in our library catalog so patrons can place their holds quickly and easily.

Don't Forget Your Programs: 

After the books were added, I added a few other details that I thought my teens would find useful. I added the image of a blackboard and on it I listed our catalog, and all of our current programs on it. I linked each program to their description pages on our library’s main website to save space on my Teen Room landing page. My Bitmoji also has a link that would take teens to a slide of my personal reading recommendations. And last, but not least, I inserted a video tutorial of how to use this interactive page and what’s all included on it.

Google Slide Formatting & Settings:

Once I finished creating all of my slides, I made sure all, but the main slide, were skipped. This allowed my Google Slides presentation to feel more like a webpage and less like a slideshow. Then, I clicked on the File button in the toolbar, and published my Google Slide presentation to the web. This is very important! It will make it so the link to your presentation opens up like a webpage/link as opposed to taking your patrons to a Google Slide presentation.

Keep It Simple and Engaging!:

Overall, I think it’s important to keep these interactive pages simple and fairly easy to explore, as they are still resource pages for your teen patrons. If there’s too much hidden, it can easily get overlooked or become too overwhelming for a patron. If you have the time, update it at least once a month and change up the books on your shelf so it’s new and engaging to your patrons. And while this method might be working for me, you can definitely customize your interactive page to best fit the teens (or other audiences) in your area best. You know them better than I do! Maybe you want to advertise your movie collection someway, or showcase a new service that your library is providing during these crazy times! That’s completely up to you and them.

P.S. Don't forget to share this resource with your school librarians as well! They might want to share it with their teachers, and they with their students.  

I hope this is helpful and if you ever have any questions, feel free to send them my way! 

Tools & Resources Used in Creating My Virtual Space:

• Google Slides
• Bitmoji (There’s an add-on you can use on your Google browser, but you may need to download the Bitmoji app on your phone/tablet to edit what your Bitmoji character looks like)

Want to see some examples? The virtual spaces featured below are from the Waupaca Area Public Library.

Waupaca Area Public Library - Teen Department

Waupaca Area Public Library - Children's Department

No Wall Space? No Worries!

I would LOVE a bulletin board.  Or a column.   Or really just any bit of open, free wall space for display usage.  However, the reality of my library building thwarts my hopes and dreams of glorious wall-sweeping book displays.

On the upside, Ashley Cooksey, over at AASL's Knowledge Quest, has compiled five excellent display ideas that require no wall space.  From front-facing books to social media marketing, get more from your shelves (and get students to take more books OFF your shelves) with these space-creative ideas.  Check out the full list HERE.

100 Middle Grade Reads

Book Riot compiled a list of their 100 favorite middle grade books from the past year. My mind is a little mushy with SLP. I have trouble recalling anything not reading program. Lists are great reminders of titles, especially new ones, I can add to displays and promote.

And also add to my read list. I hate to admit it but I don't read much during SLP. Trying to get everyone else to read is tiring! I can barely read a page before I conk out at night. Is this true for other children's librarians?

Also, what titles would you add to Book Riot's list?

Home for Peculiar Books

Pixabay

The movies release date for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is Friday, September 30th. If you are not able to have a party, here are some ideas to wipe something together in your teen area.

Create a book display. Book Riot's Beyond the Bestsellers series features Miss Peregrine read-alikes.

Teen Librarian Toolbox has lots of ideas for a party but a couple would work as passive activities. Provide an old photo or photos and challenge the teens to write a story with them. Have the teens create a movie poster. If the teens allow, put their creations on display.

Passive Book Club Display

Michelle Veeneman at Belleville Library in Belleville shared this idea with me. If you don't have time to run a book club at a specific date and time, create a passive book club display. You have multiple copies of a book (audio versions too) along with non-fiction titles related to the theme or read-alikes. The display also includes an activity which can be  take-home or something kids can do at the Library. Activities can include a simple craft, how to draw an animal or character, word searches, coloring pages, and crosswords.

We started our passive book club in September with The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The display included that month's chosen book and non-fiction titles about gorillas. The activity was a gorilla mask. We also had an almost life-size picture of a gorilla similar to this display. We did not have enough  space to do a life-size gorilla. 
 
This month's theme is penguins and Antarctica. The book is Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater. Kids can do the math literacy activity Roll and Draw a Penguin from Teaching Heart Blog. My awesome assistant Wendy created life-size penguins so kids can see how they measure up to an Emperor Penguin.

The response has been great. We are promoting our collections and books. People are checking out books which is the main point of programming. Instead of hosting a program for a few, we are able to reach everyone who visits the Library.

Read On Wisconsin Titles for March

The Youth Services Section of the Wisconsin Library Association is a sponsor of Read On Wisconsin (ROW), which is a literacy program highlighting top-notch reads for youth of all ages in our state.  

Discussion questions, selected booktrailers, forums and resources for librarians and teachers to use in promoting these titles are available at the Read On Wisconsin website. Consider featuring these titles in storytimes, programs, or displays. Children and teens can even make booktrailers for sharing on the ROW website. Guidelines, technical tips and examples are available here.

March 2015 Read on Wisconsin Titles:


Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers Books
Which Is Round? Which Is Bigger? by Mineko Mamada. Translated from the Japanese by Yvette Ghione. U.S. edition: Kids Can Press, 2013.
All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. Beach Lane, 2009.


Primary (K-2) Books
No Monkeys, No Chocolate by Melissa Stewart and Allen Young. Illustrated by Nicole Wong. Charlesbridge, 2013.


Intermediate (Grades 3-5) Books
H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination by Christopher Myers. Egmont, 2012.
Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy. Illustrated by Joe Morse. Carolrhoda, 2013.


Middle School Books
March: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. Illustrated by Nate Powell. Top Shelf, 2013.
Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans during World War II by Martin W. Sandler. Walker, 2013.


High School Books
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb. Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic Inc., 2013.
I See the Promised Land: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Arthur Flowers. Illustrated by Manu Chitrakar. Designed by Guglielmo Rossi. Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, 2013.

Surprise! Book Bundle!

Our guest post today is from Minetta Lippert, Youth Services Librarian at Fort Atkinson's Dwight Foster Public Library

I am excited to see so many libraries displaying “blind date with a book” and other book bundles lately.  The Dwight Foster Public Library in Fort Atkinson just experimented with this idea in December (I borrowed the concept from the recent WLA conference session called “More Ways to Increase Circulation in Your Youth Department”) and our patrons loved it!  We wrapped groups of three juvenile books in holiday wrapping paper and encouraged families to check them out in addition to their other books.  The bundles contained random mixes of picture books and nonfiction that could appeal to a wide youth audience (including lots of books with “boring” covers but beautiful content).  All wrapped bundles featured a gift tag asking the lucky reader to return the materials by their due date so we could share them with more readers.

I could hardly wrap bundles fast enough!  Kids chose their own gift-like bundles, parents brought home bundles for their kids, and one eight-year-old boy made sure to bring home enough bundles for all his siblings.  In addition to boosting circulation numbers, the bundles were a fun way of generating excitement about books.  After all, who doesn’t love tearing off wrapping paper?  We heard many stories about kids begging to open their “gifts” in the car because they couldn’t wait the five minutes it would take to arrive at home.  Our staff also enjoyed teaching mesmerized kids about the magic of RFID.  Best of luck to everyone else’s book bundle endeavors.