You’ve got to love the teachers at Biloxi Junior High School in Biloxi, Mississippi. They spent their summer vacation creating an Avenue of Literature for their students by painting the lockers in the hallway to look like the spines of books.

“They’re so much cleaner and bright, and they’re beautiful,” asserts teacher Jamie Parker. Teacher Becky Howard agrees. “I think the kids are really going to enjoy it. When they come back and see this, they’re going to be like, ‘Wow, this is really neat,'” she says.

The project was inaugurated the preceding Fall when two of the teachers at the school decided they wanted to transform the old, dull lockers that lined the eighth grade English hallway. The 189 lockers had been sealed shut and left unused for more than 15 years. “We thought, well, wow, we can really make this hallway look good,” commented teacher Elizabeth Williams. To decorate the lockers, the teachers selected titles they believed would appeal to all reading levels, interests, and genres.

The project was funded by a $600 grant through Biloxi First, public donations, and personal contributions.