The Portage District Library children’s room was overflowing with kids enjoying their spring break holiday. And around them, the usual cheery decorations had an April Fools' twist.
“We have our freshly washed bookmarks hung up on a clothesline. We have a display of invisible books over here. We have a book display of books to make you laugh out loud and they're all wearing funny glasses with fake mustaches," said youth librarian Andrea Smalley.
At the entrance to the children's area, visitors were greeted with a challenge: find the 15 silly displays around the room.
“One of our favorites is our water display. It's a collection of different waters: sippy cup water, puddle water, vacation water. And of course, we have our wet floor signs out around that," Smalley said.
According to Smalley, this idea has been a few years in the making — she said her supervisor, head of youth services Laura Wright, came up with the idea and hoped to do it last year but got sick right before April Fool's day came around.
"Those of us who were here tried to implement her plan but she didn't get to do it and we didn't do it quite as well as her dreams. So this year she just put everything she had into it and it's awesome," Smalley said.
There was silly animal photo scavenger hunt, a display of cereal boxes disguised to look like books, and funny cat photos taped to the "cat"-alog computers.
To round out the goofy energy, Smalley and her colleagues handed out glasses with googly eyes and the classic nose-and-mustache disguise to kids as they left for the day.
