Summer Reading Challenge Crafts at Walton Library

Brigid Deacon, Walton Library

This year for the Mythical Maze, Walton Library created a small crew of creatures and monsters to bring the Summer Reading Challenge to life for its participants. Patched together from recycling and a slick of paint, characters from myth and legend across the world have been out on display; inhabiting the children’s section and peering down from the tops of shelves.

The mythical theme really lent itself to some fantastic possibilities – from Anansi yoghurt pots and box- headed dragons through to a paper mache Medusa head display for which children completing the challenge can contribute a decorated snake to her locks.
For the entrance, a life-size Ariadne figure was made and displayed, holding a ball of string that led visitors up the two flights of stairs into the library, where a cardboard Minotaur awaited them with information on the Greek myth.

Having a visually engaging environment in the Library to which children can come to take part in something like the Summer Reading Challenge and discover books is something that I feel is really important; the qualitive value of the time spent putting together the craft displays this year has been made clear by the children’s reactions & interactions with them and in the children taking part and continuing to come back – they are the future of our libraries, after all.
Brigid Deacon, Library Assistant