50 book challenge - King's High School Library

Bridget Schaumann, the lively and innovative librarian at King's High School Dunedin, shared on the listserv her school's "50 Book Challenge", as follows :

So here is the deal with the 50 Book Challenge.

• It runs for 6 months from March till October
• You must fill in my very basic forms to have your books counted – What was the story about? What did you like about it? What didn’t you like?
  
• What other readers might like the book?
  
• All books must be about 200 pages (I’m more lenient with the guys who struggle with reading than I am with the avid guys)
  
• The winner gets a nice big $50 book voucher with $25 to the two other runners up
  
• Last year we had it running inter-house but it meant too much benefit to the non readers in the group so now it is just about the guys who really achieve – the group got a pizza lunch paid for – which turns out to be very expensive!
  
• All participants will get a small prize at the end for participating.
  

The main idea for beginning it was:

• I wanted a competitive reading competition which had decent prizes to raise the profile of reading in the school.
  
• The reviews that the students do go on the blog if they are good enough.
  
• Boys love competition – I love competition
  
• I wanted something easy to organise which could be an inter-house comp but not involve any more work for the deans
  
• It is a great promotional tool
  

The results:

• It has completely raised my issue stats and also made the really keen ones read more from my shelves than the public library shelves because they needed more books more quickly.
  
• The boys are doing far more recommending of books to each other than before because they like the ‘quick and dirty’ aspect “He liked it so I probably will too” and I have to say it has made some boys new friends.
  
• It is always the Year 9s and 10s who really buy into it. More senior students start but get bored and don’t continue. But there are a couple of year 13 who read avidly but who don’t want to take part in the comp (beneath them!) but they do check the blog to make sure I have posted their book reviews! (I think that is kinda cool!)
  
• It is a great promotional tool!
  

So there you go. I’m considering running a 100 book challenge next year but that might be a bit much, I’m doing one of those myself this year and am only up to 60 and the year is rapidly ending!
Cheerfully, Bridget
Bridget Schaumann RLIANZA Librarian/Careers Advisor King's High School