Ducky Discovery

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What if you discover a duck in your fridge? What if you discover ducks all over your HOUSE? With this easy printable project and hilarious picture book, you can do just that!

We read Duck in the Fridge by Jeff Mack (Two Lions, 2014). When a little boy asks his Dad a bedtime question about a Mother Goose book, Dad recalls the time he was a kid and found a duck in the fridge. And how more ducks begin appearing in various rooms of the house. The crowd quickly expands to include sheep, dogs, cows…until NO ONE is getting any sleep! Finally, clever Dad contrives to read Mother Goose, which does the trick. Don’t miss the final page of the book. It will make you laugh out loud!

You’ll need:

  • A ducky discovery template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper
  • A couple toilet paper or paper towel tubes
  • Scissors and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

Color and cut the ducks from the template, then tape them to snippets of toilet paper or paper towel tubes so they stand upright. Then hide the ducks in various parts of your house and wait for them to be discovered! Duck in the Closet…

Duck on the Pillow…

Duck in the Tub…

Annnnnnd Duck in the Studio (look carefully!)…

Pop’s Top 10: Famous Movie Libraries

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Ghostbusters NYPL cropped 1

Screenshot from Ghostbusters; 1984, Columbia Pictures

Katie and I work in a library (allbeit a unique library), visit libraries (like here, here, here, here, and here), and even craft libraries (here, here, or with flying books!). So when a library shows up in a movie, we of course get all giddy. Recently, we put together a list of our Top 10 famous movie libraries. Number two was a bit of a surprise, and number one? TOTAL CLASSIC.

#10 NATIONAL TREASURE

National Treasure is a campy hoot, packed with forefather name drops and American-ish history. Eventually, our adventurers find themselves in Washington DC in the Library of Congress. They discover a secret hatch in the shelving with a journal inside it, but…total pet peeve here…Nicolas Cage doesn’t shut the hatch after he removes the book. If you’re trying to be all secretive and cover your tracks, SHUT THE SECRET HATCH SO NO ONE ELSE CAN FIND IT! Geez!

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Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

#9 AMERICAN ANIMALS

Based on the true story of a botched rare books heist, American Animals centers around the Transylvania University Library in Lexington, Kentucky. The movie is fascinating, featuring both actor portrayals and interviews with the real life culprits (who all did jail time for the crime). The library featured in the movie, however, was not in Kentucky. It was the E.H. Little Library at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

#8 PHILADELPHIA

The multiple Academy Award-winning movie Philadelphia stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington as two lawyers fighting AIDS discrimination. A major turning point takes place in the gorgeous Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania. Awwww. We love you Philly!

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

#7 LEGALLY BLONDE

What better way to win back an ex-boyfriend then attending Harvard Law School. And what better place to studying for those LSATs then the Pasadena Central Library in Pasadena, California. It’s got palm trees in front, ya’ll!

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

#6 STRANGER THINGS

While technically not a movie, we had to include Stranger Things on this list. Interestingly, the exterior of the library is the Butts County Courthouse in Jackson, Georgia. The interior scenes were shot in a library in East Point, Georgia. Why did a NOT movie make this movie list? This awesome quote from Dustin: ““I am on a curiosity voyage. And I need my paddles to travel. These books… these books are my paddles.”

Photo from Wikipedia

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

#5 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Since we’re stretching the movie list a bit with Stranger Things, we’ll stretch just a BIT further with a library that inspired a movie library. Yes, we’re talking about Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast, Katie’s favorite, favorite FAVORITE. Belle’s literary wonderland was modeled after the Admont Abbey Library in Admont, Austria.

Admont Abbey Library, Austria

Image courtesy of the Admont Abbey Library, Austria

#4 INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

The exterior of the Chiesa di San Barnaba Library in Venice, Italy was used during filming of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But no, the library does not have stained glass window maps, secret in-floor compartments, or catacombs underneath it. Darn it.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

#3 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Of course a Harry Potter movie is on this list! Where else would Hermoine go to find all the answers (or overstudy)? Hogwart’s adopted the Duke Humfrey’s Library, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, England as its sanctum of knowledge.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

#2 THE BREAKFAST CLUB

The 1980s classic The Breakfast Club basically takes place in a library, so it’s close to the top of our list. They movie was filmed in the Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois. But they didn’t use the school library OR shoot scenes in an alternate library. Surprisingly, they built an entire library set inside the high school’s gymnasium! So no, the library was not real. And no, you can’t go and recreate the famed “Detention Dance” scene. Bogus.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

#1 GHOSTBUSTERS

And the number one spot goes to the New York Public Library in New York City! Woooo!

While this iconic library has appeared in several films (Breakfast at Tiffany’s,13 Going on 30, Spiderman) we would argue that Ghostbusters leads the pack in sheer supernatural awesomeness. And while the NYPL was used for exterior and early scene shots (including the beautiful NYPL reading room photo that started this post), it must be said that the encounter with the fabled “Library Ghost” was actually filmed in the stacks of the Los Angeles Central Library. Life lesson learned: don’t mess with library ghosts. Just don’t.

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Image courtesy of Public Domain Pictures.net

One Two Books

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It’s a story line, an illustration exercise, and an optical illusion all wrapped into one simple project! “One Two Books” is an activity I like to do with kids during illustration and art programs. It’s quick, easy, and fun!

You’ll need:

  • 1 piece of paper
  • Markers and/or pens

To begin, fold a piece of paper in half like a card (I use the heavier stock 9″ x 6″ paper from the inexpensive sketch books Target sells in their office supply section). Label the front of the card with a number 1:

Then open the card and, in the exact same position in the interior, label it with a number 2:

Now decide the story you want to tell. One Two Books only have 2 pages, so I encourage kids to think about a simple action, reaction, or scenario. The younger the artist, the simpler it should be. So here we have a sleeping dog and a grumpy bird on a window sill…hmmm…

Flip open the card for the action…a shouting bird and a shocked, no longer sleeping dog!

One Two Books are a great way to think sequentially, but they are also a terrific way to teach you to think logically and visually. For example, in order for the image to work, the window, rug, and floor line need to occur in the same place on both pages. If color is used, it needs to be consistent between pages. Your characters need to be in somewhat similar orientations or the story won’t make sense. And for the older kids, I show how dialogue or emotive lines adds to the scene (example: the “zzzzz” for the dog on page 1, and its surprised reaction lines on page 2).

The books are also optical illusions! Flip them quickly open and shut to see your characters in motion. Here’s the bird dog story:

And here’s a goldfish story I did with another young illustrator…

The visual action of One Two Books are similar to thaumatropes, which are fantastic optical toys from the Victorian era. Check out this post, which features our awesome Alice in Wonderland thaumatrope project, complete with instructions and printable templates!

thaumatrope demo

Unlike thaumatropes, however, One Two Books allow you more space to create. You can have several action sequences happening on the page at once, for example. Or more elaborate backgrounds. You can have dialogue between two characters as well.

Another interesting storytelling form to try is kamishibai, which originated in Japan. You can find more information about its history and instructions on how to illustrate stories here.

just the cards

There’s also a Japanese version of thaumatropes called tachi-e puppets. You’ll find instructions for those here!