Spotlight 4 Success
We're shining a light on education success stories and talking about current trends and topics of importance to the education community. Join us in conversation!
Spotlight 4 Success
Story Walks That Get Kids Reading
Imagine a picture book unfolding along a sunny park path, each page waiting around the next bend. That’s the magic behind story walk signs, and we sit down with Meghan Beehler from Lark Signs to explore how this simple idea turns movement into motivation for young readers and their families.
Website: spotlight4success.com
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I'm Devin Pintozi, your host. We are here in the wonderful South Carolina Librarian Association here in Columbia, South Carolina. And we have our special guest today. This is Megan Beeler.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Megan, thank you for joining us today. I understand that you are with Book Trails, is that right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So our company is called Lark Signs, but we currently released or recently released a product called a story walk sign, which has been popular since 2017, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So we're one of the few people who make signs for book trails.
SPEAKER_00:That is so awesome. And so did that decision, was that hapsen stance, was it on a lark, or was it, you know, well, like we are gonna do this. We're gonna preserve the librarian communities with uh the book trail product.
SPEAKER_01:My boss is very, oh, I can make that. And so he's probably stumbled across a storywalk one day and was like, Yeah, we can do that and we'll make it better. And so we've listened to librarians who have to change it out, and we've tried to perfect it to make it easy for them and more cost effective.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, nice, yeah. And uh so um how does it work? Like you're setting up this whole thing, you've got all of these signs going on uh that are going all around. Uh is it is it around the library or how does it work uh as an engagement tool?
SPEAKER_01:So you can either partner with a park or you can put it up at a local public library or anywhere that has enough space to walk around, usually about a half mile, and you set up these signs about a hundred feet apart, put in the pictures of a storybook, and then you encourage the kids to walk and read and be outside and that is so much fun.
SPEAKER_00:Um, what do you think of what is the um optimal age group? Like what age group is uh uh kind of the the focus?
SPEAKER_01:Probably you're looking like kindergarten, so four to ten.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay, probably. Yeah, that's a nice group. Um uh that's a lot of fun. I have uh two daughters there, uh three-year-olds, and they're starting to get into all that stuff now. Yep, I want to want to see those signs, and uh what a great way to have an interaction going on. Um, what's the what's the way that um uh people can find out more about what is going on with Lark?
SPEAKER_01:So if you go to Larksigns.com, you'll see all of our outdoor products, including our story walk sign, or if you go to readandwalk.com, you'll learn just about our story walk.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, wow. That is such a fun product. Um uh we're right across from them here at the conference, and uh let me tell you, there it looks really, really nice. So uh do go check them out. Uh thank you for joining us today. It's super nice to meet you, Megan Beeler.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks for having me.