The MHS Book Club hosted a book bedazzling event in the school library on Dec. 12. Students had the opportunity to decorate their own books using colorful rhinestones, adhesive, and other supplies provided by the club.
The library offered certain books to be bedazzled, should a student forget their book at home. These books, known as Advance Reader Copies (ARCs), are unpublished proofs that are illegal to sell and therefore available for students to decorate, MHS librarian Mia Gittlen said.
The word “bedazzling” refers to a method of decorating wherein rhinestones are applied to a surface with glue or another adhesive, MHS Book Club officer Mihika Kedia said.
“You take small gemstones — I think these ones are plastic — and an adhesive, and you put the adhesive on your book and stick the gemstones onto the book, and it just makes it look pretty,” Kedia said.
The supplies for bedazzling were provided for participants at no cost, having been funded by the club’s fundraising events, Kedia said.
“We’ve been hosting some semi-regular fundraisers, such as food sales,” Kedia added.
The MHS Book Club’s objective in hosting the bedazzling event is to increase the club’s engagement with its members and the larger student body as well as to help students cultivate reading habits, Kedia said.
“We want to build community and get people interested in reading, maybe get some books off shelves,” she said.
The book club frequently works with the school library on displays and meetings, Kedia added.
“A lot of our meetings are held in the library now,” she said. “We also have some pretty regular displays up. I know that there’s a banned book display from Amnesty International that we collaborated on.”
The MHS Book Club’s bedazzling event was a good way for students to reduce stress just before finals, Gittlen said.
“Ms. Rosas helped me get ready for (book bedazzling), and we were just sorting the rhinestones into the different bowls,” Gittlen said. “It was actually very relaxing.”
The library is an open space for fostering creativity through hosting after-school events, Gittlen added.
“We do have after-school events regularly, maybe about once a month,” Gittlen said. “Some of them span different amounts of time — National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) was last month, and it was every single day that the space was available for writers and creators.”
Book bedazzling is a unique opportunity for artistic students, freshman Vardhini Kashyap said.
“I’ve always had an interest in art, and this is something that I don’t think a lot of people could do often,” she said. “And I feel like it’s a good activity to do in general.”
The idea of book bedazzling is creative and interesting, Kashyap added.
“I was waiting for this all week,” she said. “It’s the only thing that made me want to go until Friday.”
