PRACTICE AND EVALUATION OF A STUFFED ANIMAL SLEEPOVER: ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN’S REACTIONS TO PICTURE BOOKS

This study aims to devise a procedure of stuffed animal sleepover programs conducted to increase children’s interest in books and to examine their reactions during and after the practice. Eighteen children took part in the program. Although the details of stuffed animal sleepover programs vary by libraries, this study applied the steps as follows. First, each child brought his/her own stuffed animal to the library and left it there overnight. The next day, the program staffs took photos of the scenes in which the stuffed animals worked, read books, and slept in the library. On the third day, librarians read picture books to the children with their stuffed animals. The librarians loaned books to each child according to the child’s interest, presenting them as books that the child’s own stuffed animal had selected. In addition, the children were given a photo album of their stuffed animal’s sleepover experience.

In previous stuffed animal sleepover programs at various libraries, there were many cases in which librarians read picture books to the children with their stuffed animals before the libraries kept the stuffed animals overnight. However, this program changed the procedure such that the picture book reading was the final step. This led the children to imagine that each stuffed animal had prepared for picture book reading at the library. The children listened attentively as the librarians introduced their stuffed animals’ hard work and enjoyed picture book reading with them.

Parents were asked to answer a questionnaire about their children’s reaction to the stuffed animal sleepover and submit it when they returned the books to the library. Eleven out of eighteen parents submitted responses. Some indicated that their children enjoyed reading the books their stuffed animals had chosen more than usual. Moreover, the parents answered that their children seemed to love the books, took the books and listened to them repeatedly, and asked to attend the stuffed animal sleepover again. The program is expected to continue, and examine its longitudinal effects on children’s interest in books.