9 Ways to Turn Your Library Into a Literary Theme Park
Next fall, ride a reading rollercoaster! This fun-tastic literary theme park is packed with thrilling cliffhangers, twists and turns—and yes, a massive lore drop. Whether your students are more excited for Story Spinners or Speed Readers, they’re bound to find a bookish attraction they love!
From games and attractions to cars and coasters, you can decorate with the elements that most excite your students. Here are a few ways to bring the Adventure Park to life and make your book fair the most exciting attraction in school.
3 Ways to Decorate Your Adventure Park
Create Your Own Bookish ‘Lands’
Dedicate different areas of your library to different lands your students can enjoy.
- The Big Coaster: your main book fair setup
- The Tilt-a-Whirl: your poster section
- The Ferris Wheel: your reading and writing center displays
- The Speedway: your table top book displays
- The Ticketbooth: your checkout center
Give Students a Park Map
Once your bookish lands are ready, create a fun adventure park map for your library and fair. Give students their own ‘park pass’ to encourage them to explore each area.
Make a Reading Rollercoaster
A roller coaster should be one of the big visual moments of your theme. Create a large paper or cardboard rollercoaster track that winds around a wall or bulletin board. Along the track, add book covers or characters to add another level of excitement.
3 Fun Events to Host
Opening Day: Welcome to Adventure Park
Kick off the book fair like the opening of a brand-new theme park. Have your principal officially ‘open’ your Adventure Park over the morning PA system. When students arrive, play upbeat music, decorate the entrance like a theme park gate, and give students an Adventure Park ticket.
Ride the Reading Rollercoaster
Turn book fair week into a reading challenge. Create a giant roller coaster display with stops representing different reading milestones. Every time a student finishes a book or a book is purchased from their teacher’s wishlist, move their class car farther along the track.
Make the milestones fun:
- First Drop: Three Books
- Loop-de-Loop: Five Books
- Big Twist: 10 Books
- Final Ride: 15 Books
Put a fun spin on it and allow the class who hit the most milestones to have a slime party or extra recess.
Family Fun Night at Adventure Park
Turn your book fair night into a literary theme park experience by setting up simple ‘attractions’ around the library.
- Storytime Theater: guest readers perform a favorite story.
- Character Photo Booth: take a picture with themed props.
- Book Fair Scavenger Hunt: find the books on your fair with a set of clues.
- Adventure Ticket Raffle: for every book purchased, that class gets a raffle ticket. The class with the most raffle tickets at the end of the fair gets to silly string the principal.
3 Activities to Do With Students
Design Your Own Theme Park Ride
Ask your students, “If your favorite book were a theme park ride, what would it be?” The sky’s the limit with roller coasters, ferris wheels, water rides, and more! Have students draw their ride and explain which book inspired it. Display them around the book fair as “Coming Attractions” for families to enjoy.
What’s Your Reading Ride?
Have a lively genre-based activity that helps students discover what they like to read. If they love twists and turns, perhaps a good mystery book is right for them. If they’d like an action packed ride, an adventure book may just do the trick. If they are ready to blast into another world, Sci-Fi will help them reach new heights. Once they choose their ride direction, show them books on the fair that pair with that genre.
Create an Attraction Game
Put students in a small group and give them a genre. Their challenge is to design an attraction game that would make other students want to read books from that genre. To get their wheels moving, encourage them to think of a game name, come up with a slogan, think of what the game could look like, and would this game have a prize.
