Speed Dating with Books!

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Mrs. Brown’s English students spent Tuesday here in the library looking for “dates” with great young adult books. A fun time was had by all, and many of the students went away with a new book to enjoy. Here’s how it worked:

  • I set up seven different tables with different genres or categories of books. 
  • I put together a slideshow  to keep the program going. It included some images, tips, and timers for each of the time intervals. I used this slide to explain how the books were selected:

speed dating with books

  • Next,  I share the rules:

speed dating rules

  • Then, I started some “mood” music, and we began Round 1.
  • Those who didn’t choose a book in Round 1 had three more chances. 
  • Everyone either went away with a book, or with a recommendation list and link to the YALSA Teen Book Finder app for more ideas. Use this QR code to get your own copy of the free app!

teen_bookfinder_app

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See more photos on our Flickr page.

I had so much fun sharing lots of my favorite young adult books with Mrs. Brown’s students. I hope to repeat this activity with other English classes.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tiffany Whitehead, aka The Mighty Little Librarian, and Gwyneth Jones, aka The Daring Librarian, for the ideas I used to plan this event.

4 thoughts on “Speed Dating with Books!

  1. Cheers for the shout out Jane! Every librarian can add their own spin on this super fun reading promotion activity & event! I blogged about how I did it with even less – set up and more cheese! LOL
    Thanks again!
    ~Gwyneth Jones
    The Daring Librarian

  2. Thank you for an excellent post about your project. I am pondering how i might adapt this for a research paper project i worked on recently…

  3. Thanks for the shout out!! The book speed dating was definitely one of the most fun and most loved activities that I’ve done this year…glad it worked well for your students, too!
    Tiff Whitehead
    MightyLittleLibrarian.com

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