EdiM #9: Reading Log

I keep saying I've done the last illustration for Teen Summer Reading, and then I realize there's just one more… I started getting my teen volunteers mobilized to label and stuff the "swag bags" we give away when we register the teens, and realized that the one thing I forgot to design and print to go in them is the Reading Log.

This is the little booklet in which the teens write down all the books they read over the summer; they get one ticket per item read, the tickets go into a jar at the Reference Desk, and once a week we have a drawing for $5 gift cards to Jamba Juice or Starbucks or In-n-Out for three lucky winners at each branch. It's a popular incentive!

The reading log should, of course, have a graphic on the front that relates to its purpose, which meant I had to do one more drawing. So I got a list of the top 20 teen fiction books at BPL this month, picked out a few with colorful covers, piled them up, and drew and painted them.

Instead of just picking for popularity, I should have thought ahead to the drawing and painting process, because I picked some covers that were hard to duplicate! Some came out well, and some not so much (there is a lot of Photoshop Elements retouching of little skinny letters here!), but I'm going with it, because I need that reading log to be printed and done!

I'm going to call this my EdiM #9, "something with an interesting label." A book cover isn't precisely a label, but I think doing portions of five of them should count for something!