Interactive Display: Handselling Lois Ehlert
This week, The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert was released. It has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal, and is a recommended title for Common Core. Although she has written and illustrated dozens of books for young people, more than children will find this new work enchanting.
Ehlert turns 80 this year, and this colorful memoir offers inspiration for young and old to embrace their own creativity. You can help foster that creativity with an interactive display. In addition to her backlist, place on your display table a shallow box with colorful scraps of paper in all shapes and sizes, and beside it place a white piece of paper or poster board to serve as a canvas. Invite customers to “create” temporary pieces of art using Ehlert’s collage technique, only without the glue. When each piece is complete, take a photo to upload to a Facebook album. Once the photo is taken, the scraps can go back into the box until the next artist comes along.
I love the idea of encouraging adults to interact with this display, not only because of their purchasing ability, but also because too often we’re told to color within the lines.
