What Books Can Do

There's really no reason for this post, other than I wanted to share.

At the school where my mom works, they have themed doors throughout the year, meaning that each teacher/class decorates a door to go along with whatever the semester's focus happens to be. I wanted to share a picture of the door I helped her put together for the "reading" semester. (It won 1st place...)

Mom wanted something that illustrated how much of an impact books could have on a kid, so I immediately thought of this (you've likely seen it before):



It couldn't be used as-is because a - the graffiti isn't elementary school appropriate and b - doors are big and we don't have a printer big enough to make this thing door-sized. So, after doing a bit of brainstorming, this was the result:



It took the pile of books from the original and turned them into stepping stones the kids (the girl is a total copy of Mary Englebright's little painter, btw. The boy is the same thing, flipped, with a haircut and dye job ;-) ) I like the change, because it makes the kids proactive. Where the boy in the original is using books as an escape to dream (as many kids do), the painters are creating their own world from what they've read - and that's the true magic of reading. (I also love that, when assembled, it was the girl "painting" Star Wars instead of a princess fantasy.)

If you're interested, the books used are:

The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg
The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks
Transformers, (I think this is a "read with me" book).
The Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein
Hank, the Cowdog, by John R. Ericson
Faery Rebels, by R. J. Anderson
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
The Oxford English Dictionary
Peter Pan, by James M. Barrie (despite the Disney-fied cover)
Miss Nelson is Missing, by Harry Allard

The boy is standing on:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling and Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

The girl is standing on:

Wings, by Aprilynne Pike, and one of the Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice books.