A few year’s ago, one of my personal work goals was to start a monthly kids passive program. At the time, our library offered a monthly Imagination Station, a pretend play space for approximately ages 2-6, and a monthly teen passive, for students in grades 6-12. Children in the middle often ended up trying to participate in the activities designed for younger or older kids.
Read about some of my other passive programs at the links below:
One of my favorite passives is our Book Tournament voting bracket. I select 16 titles that have appeal to ages 6-12 (generally our most popularly requested titles), and match them against one another.
Visitors of all ages can vote about once a week for their favorite titles. Over a month, our titles are whittled down to our final match-up, which has now twice resulted in Harry Potter vs. Dog Man (but a different outcome each time).
Voting sheets and a voting box are displayed at the youth desk and beside our large bracket poster.
For 2020, our first round match-ups included (winners in bold):
- Dog Man vs. Magic Tree House
- Land of Stories vs. Amulet
- I Survived vs. Wimpy Kid
- Big Nate vs. Smile
- Harry Potter vs. Last Kids
- Bad Guys vs. Captain Underpants (by one vote!)
- Who Would Win vs. Percy Jackson
- Wings of Fire vs. Baby Sitter’s Club
Our rounds continued until we were eventually whittled down to the same match-up as 2018: Dog Man vs. Harry Potter. In 2018, Harry Potter won by a landslide. In 2020, however, Dog Man took the trophy by a single-vote victory.
Many patrons came in each week to check on–and sometimes attempt to contest–who had won the previous week. I’m excited to bring this back again next year and to see if we have a different outcome.
Pingback: Kids Passive Program: I Spy - Book Cart Queens