Dreaming with Eyes Open | Book Week Display 2022

It’s almost Book Week! One of my favourite times of the year in the library. I have just finished creating my Book Week display for this year’s theme “Dreaming with Eyes Open,” and I hope the students will love it.

This year’s theme is a bit of a tricky one to create a display for, there are so many options. So I chose to match the theme with a book about a dream, and “The Wizard of Oz” was the winner.

The display also doubles as a photo booth. During Book Week students will be able to step inside the display and have their photos taken. I then display the photos on the TV in the library. The students love seeing their photos and sharing them with their friends. The photos look fantastic when they are in their costumes for the Book Week Parade, and the kids really do love it. To show you the effect, I have added my daughter via photoshop, in the Dorothy costume she wore for Book Week 2 years ago.

To make this year’s display, I used large cardboard boxes, our old cubby house and some flowers I made for my daughter’s birthday party last year.

To create the munchkin houses I used an old refridgerator box. I cut the box down to size, giving the houses a rounded roof. I rolled the cardboard to give the houses a 3D effect and painted the houses with some leftover white paint. The “thatch” roof is made from A3 sheets of kraft paper folded in half and then cut in a fringe style. I sticky taped these to the cardboard on the lower layers and used double sided tape on the the top layer. I used a thinner cardboard to make the door and window frames and painted these blue. I hot glued these to the house. The door is painted a light pink directly onto the house. Finally I cut a hole for the window and used some scrap material to create the curtain.

To make the yellow brick road I used another large cardboard box as the base, and printed the bricks on the cardboard using a kitchen sponge and yellow paint.

The wicked witch’s legs are made from some old white tights filled with stuffing. I used some black electrical tape to add the stripes to the legs, and slipped on some ruby slippers.

To make the backdrop I found a high resolution image and printed it using Block Posters. The backdrop is made up of two very large posters that I have suspended from the ceiling. 

And here is the final product! I am really happy with how it all came together.

Now I just have to decide which “Wizard of Oz” character to be this year. Happy Book Week!

Looking for some crafts inspired by this year’s shortlisted books? Take a look here: | Paper Cup Rocket Inspired by “Stellarphant” | Paper Plate Whale inspired by “Walk of the Whales” | Cat Collage inspired by “Winston and the Indoor Cat”