Submitted by Anna Sohn, Children’s Librarian at the Rio Rancho Public Library
For the second year in a row, superheroes, princesses, and even a peacock visited the Esther Bone Memorial Library for a spooky story walk while making the Halloween rounds. Children’s Librarian Trish Koenig organized the program, choosing the best picture books for the day and preparing fun activities to go along with each one.
Any storytime theme could become a story walk, but we’ve found that it’s the perfect way to celebrate Halloween at Esther Bone. To plan the experience, we first selected our favorite spooky picture books from among our collection. We then purchased several additional copies of each title, carefully deconstructing the books and affixing the pages to sturdy construction paper. The pages were then lined up in the order of the story and put on display in the library, an exhibit to be experienced from “Once upon a time…” to “The End.” Families wandered through all afternoon, enjoying each story at their own pace.
After reading the stories, children enjoyed several quick Halloween crafts before setting off to trick-or-treat. While at the library, participants of all ages also had their final chance to try October’s passive programs, including guessing the amount of candy corn in a jar and searching for Frankenstein’s monster in a spooky scavenger hunt. With about 60 participants over the course of the afternoon, the event was a hair-raising success.