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By Matt Lazarus, Substitute Teacher

“The Booklets” is the newest initiative from Maria Falgoust, ISB’s Librarian and literary impresario. In Maria’s words, The Booklets are “library ambassadors” – a group of a dozen or so Middle School students who have elected to devote their Tuesday lunch periods to planning activities, envisioning new campaigns, and delegating tasks for the week ahead — all in the name of fostering a fresh, student-driven appreciation of the school Library and all it can offer the community. The Library is not exactly desperate for a P.R. bump; since its move from the Annex to its new capacious digs last year, Maria has seen her core group of patrons steadily expand, with everyone from Middle School students to Preschool families taking advantage of the Learning Commons’ unique space in the hours before and after school for reading, studying, and unwinding. But ask any member of The Booklets, and they will say this current success is only the beginning. When pressed about her goals for the year, 6th Grader Margaux A. was unflagging in her resolve to “make everyone want to come to the Library.”

While sitting in on a recent meeting, I made the mistake of remarking what an exciting, new venture this all was. One student quickly set me straight: “It’s not really new – it’s four weeks old.” I knew then that it would be best to sit back and observe. Colleen, the co-leader of the group, forged ahead with the week’s agenda: a vote on a student-designed Booklets emblem to appear on the group’s hotly anticipated laminated member badges and T-shirts and another call for logo submissions for the upcoming ISB Library tote bags, during which the idea of emblazoning “Brought to you by The Booklets” was met with great enthusiasm. Colleen then turned to the subject of Halloween decorations for the Library, which prompted a veritable flood of creative ideas. Since then, the Library has been festooned with streamers, masks, webs and faux-wax LED candlestick holders, and Maria assures me she will be commissioning the Booklets and their unparalleled artistry and craftsmanship again to adorn the Learning Commons during both the upcoming Multilingual Book Fair and Literacy Week.

The Booklets Logo, Designed by Jillian W. (7th Grade)

 

 

 

 

 

The Booklets logo, designed by Jillian W. (7th Grade)

Make no mistake: The Booklets attend to much more than just aesthetics. Maria’s devoted deputies see themselves as not simply planning activities and personalizing the Library, but as playing a vital role in building an even stronger sense of community. Maria describes her vision for the library as an “oasis” and speaks highly of The Booklets as students, “empowered to take ownership of the space.” One way she hopes to achieve this is by affixing student-written book reviews to the library’s shelves, as you might see in your local bookstore. Booklet volunteers will soon draft a set of guidelines for self-checkout for 3rd Graders, in a continuing effort to let students “own the Library.” Given the runaway success of a recent venture, in which Maria invited two 6th Graders to act out a book alongside her as she read to the Spanish Nursery class (a makeshift “reader’s theater”), she soon hopes to work with the Booklets on creating more opportunities for students to interact across grade levels through reading and performance, including recruiting Middle School volunteers to be Mystery Readers in Lower School classrooms. But for all their inspired sprucing and jazzing and moving and shaking, The Booklets are grounded in what motivated them to form this group in the first place. As 6th Grader Ariane B. put it: “I decided to join The Booklets because I thought it would be fun to help the Library. And I love to read.”