As a librarian working with teens, I often think of one of my most important roles is encouraging connections between young people and the wider world. I’ve done a project where students up-cycled magazines into PostSecret-type confessions to unburden themselves, but even looking for PostSecret examples to share with teens can be a little like Russian roulette, given that so many of the messages are NSFW.
A new book by Keri Smith, encourage users’ to use the public postal mail format to share in a more targeted way.’ Smith, the creator of Wreck This Journal, uses a similar creative scaffolding in her new project Everything is Connected: Reimagining the World One Postcard at a Time‘ (Perigee; October 1).
Smith’s partially-designed postcards offer space for readers to’ confess their secrets, become’ superheroes,’ travel through time, create a’ secret identity profile’ and’ interact with people yet unknown. And it will provide teen librarians with an easy, fool-proof programming resource, as well a great jumping-off point for conversations about the shared challenges of the human condition.
The result of the postcards, Smith hopes, is a deviation from life as usual and the discovery of human connections—new and old.
