"Loan"-ly Hearts Club

I borrowed this idea from a retired librarian but it turned out really well.  We have hundreds of books in the library that have not left the shelf since the school opened 13 years ago.  Many of them are really great books, but we have so many books on the shelves, kids just do not find them.  So, I created this welcome sign for the library to grow interest.

Then, I created additional puffy hearts to highlight lonely books in the Everybody, Fiction, and Nonfiction sections of the library.

My aide is so great that when students checked out a lonely book from these sections she secretly put a raffle ticket in a bucket for each loanly book.  At the beginning of March, I drew 30 tickets out and gave out prizes -- discarded books, pencil, and bookmarks!  The kids were surprised to get treats.  

Second graders selected more of the books than anyone else.  They were really drawn to my dramatic story about these poor lonely books that had never seen the light of day in over 10 years.  :-)