Library Coloring Pages

• Bookshelves: rows of spines, some standing and some leaning, with room to write your own titles.
• Story time: a librarian holding up a picture book for a circle of listeners.
• Reading nooks: beanbags, floor cushions and a lamp.
• The front desk: a librarian checking out a pile of books, with a date stamp and a card.
• Book carts and book drops: the wheeled cart used for reshelving, and the slot where returns go.
• Buildings and bookmobiles: a library with steps and columns, and the library on wheels that visits neighborhoods far from a branch.
• Bookmarks and reading logs: strips to color and cut out, and charts for tracking finished books.

A bookshelf is the heart of most library pages, and it can look flat if every spine gets a different bright color. A few habits help.

• Limit the palette. Choose five or six colors and repeat them along the shelf. Real shelves look like that because books in a series match.
• Vary the pressure. Color some spines firmly and others lightly, and you get twice as many shades from the same pencils.
• Keep the labels light. Leave the title bands white or cream, then add a line or a dot of gold.
• Shade the gaps. The space above the books and between leaning ones is in shadow. Use dark brown or gray there, and the books will stand forward.
• Color the wood last. A warm brown for the shelves ties the page together.

A little library knowledge fits on the page too. Fiction is usually shelved in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Nonfiction is grouped by subject, with a number on each spine, so all the books about dinosaurs or planets sit together. Try writing a letter or a number on every spine and putting your shelf in order.