It's almost a holiday weekend, everyone! Here in the United States, Independence Day is rapidly approaching (I honestly can't believe it's almost July, period!), so I figured this week's Throwback Thursday would end up being pretty patriotic. However, I really can't claim credit for the final idea – it was presented to me by our three Library interns, Chloe, Alex and Zaheer. The idea? Why not make an American flag out of old books in the Archive with red, white, and blue covers!
Sounds super cute, right? I thought so too, so I set time on the calendar for the the four of us to head down there and start pulling books. In preparation, I drew out a quick guide for us to use. (Now, I know that the American flag has 50 stars and 13 stripes, but that would have been a LOT of books.)
Some takeaways? Books come in a WIDE VARIETY of sizes! Seems obvious, but when you're trying to create a uniform shape using books, you really notice the difference. Additionally, books covers are rarely just solid covers, and a book having a certain color spine doesn't necessarily indicate that same color cover. And? It was so much easier to find books with white covers from the 1950s/60s, rather than the 80s/90s. So, here's what we ended up putting together:
Pretty fun, right? If we had more floor space, maybe we could have made it even bigger! We tried to include some classic Scholastic series (Goosebumps, The Baby-sitters Club) along with the older titles; can you spot them?
Here's the list of all the books in our flag:
W.H. Hudson - Green Mansions
Eric Carle & Kazuo Iwamura - Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!
Jackie French Koller - Someday
Carolyn Keene - The Nancy Drew Notebooks: The Lost Locker
Grace Maccarona - Cars! Cars! Cars!
Norman Bridwell - Clifford Va De Viaje
Norman Bridwell - Clifford's Tricks
The Scholastic Dictionary of Synonyms, Antonyms, Homonyms
Jo Litchfield - Primeros Números
Sandra Markle - Science Dares You! Make Fake Blood
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club: Friends Forever - Claudia Gets Her Guy
Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire
Rafe Martin - The World Before This One
R.L. Stine - Goosebumps: Beware, the Snowman
Jovial Bob Stine - Blips! The First Book of Video Game Funnies
Vivian Schurfranz - Renee
Peter Filichia - A Boy's-Eye View of Girls
Malcolm Rose - Formula For Murder
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #13: Aloha, Baby-sitters!
Jane Austen - Emma
Jennifer Baker - To Have and to Hold
Sharon Sherman - The Babysitter's Guide
R.L. Stine - Goosebumps: The Barking Ghost
Dan Gutman - The Kid Who Became President
Empires Beyond Europe
Larry Bortstein - Ali
R.L. Stine - Goosebumps: Say Cheese and Die!
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club Mystery #31: Mary Anne and the Music Box Secret
Sonia Black and Devra Newberger - 101 Outer Space Jokes
Ann M. Martin - The Kids in Ms. Colman's Class: Class Play
Avi - Perloo the Bold
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #2: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation
Leonard Gershe - Butterflies Are Free
Small World
Shane Armstrong - I Like Shapes
Christine Loomis - In the Diner
Scholastic Literacy Place: Gammar Resource Book - Grade 1
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Activity Guide
Kate Waters and Madeline Slovenz-Low - Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year
Jeanne Betancourt - Pony Pals: Lost and Found Pony
Marion Garthwaite - Bright Particular Star
Peter Lerangis - Antarctica: Journey to the Pole
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club: Friends Forever - Claudia and the Friendship Feud
Famous Stories
Dear America: All the Stars in the Sky - The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mark Ryder
Norman Borisoff - You Might Even Like It
A.E. Johnson - A Blues I Can Whistle
K.A. Applegate - Animorphs: The Mutation
George Vecsey - Harlem Globetrotters
Jeanne Betancourt - Pony Pals: The Winning Pony
Gina Asprocolas
