Tag Archives: art

Be Happy: The Work of Barbara Valenza

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Come experience joy, happiness, and sunflowers! Katie and I have coordinated gallery exhibits together (see Toni & Slade Morrison here, and unusual versions of fairy tales here), but our current exhibit is one we truly put our entire hearts into. “Be Happy: The Work of Barbara Valenza” is a tribute to the children’s books, original artwork, and handmade stuffed animals created by the talented Barbara Valenza. The exhibit runs through May 30th at the Cotsen Children’s Library.

Originally hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Barbara Hess Valenza (1961-2024) earned a B.A. in Communications and Theatre from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and began her career in New York City in the art department of Jim Henson Productions. In 2011, she transitioned to Princeton University as the Assistant Director of Graphic Services and The Digital Print Center, and then as the inaugural Director of Library Communications in 2017. A long-time resident of Hopewell, New Jersey, she and her husband, Mark, raised their two children — Laura and Nathaniel — with much love and laughter. Barbara believed in the positive power of art and literature, and, as a talented and giving artist, honored the responsibility and privilege that comes with creating.

Kindness, positivity, imagination, hope, and happiness run through Barbara’s works like golden threads on a beautiful tapestry. In her illustrations and words, Barbara shared her artistic soul while also encouraging readers to embrace and express their own creativity. Central to her stories are personal connections — families to be celebrated, friends to be discovered, and feelings to be shared.

From bears in bursting rainbow gardens to birthday parties for dachshund dogs, Barbara’s illustrations are vivid and bold; joyful and jubilant. The exhibition, coordinated by family, friends, and colleagues, is a loving tribute to her creative and giving spirit. To quote Barbara’s own inspiring words: This is a great day. Be wonderful in everything you do. Make the world a brighter place. Have lots and lots of fun. Be happy.

We were very lucky to host not one, but two of Barbara’s special books at our story time program! The first was for Little Lovedog’s Long Walk Home (Potato Publishing, 2021), which Barbara read to our community in 2023. The second story time was for Hubie (Potato Publishing, 2021), which I read in honor of the exhibit’s opening.

say it with sunflowers 2

Now we’d like to share the love with you! We’re giving away two copies of Little Lovedog and two copies of Hubie. Simply email danas@princeton.edu to enter the drawing. We will randomly select four winners on 05/01/25, contact you via email, and mail them to you!

Exhibit images courtesy of Brandon Johnson. Author image courtesy of the Valenza family.

Of Squirrels and Sweaters

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Spring might just be around the corner, but there’s still time to bust out a cozy, super snazzy sweater. Especially if you’re a squirrel with a celebration to get to!

We read Squirrel’s Sweater, written by Laura Renauld and illustrated by Jennie Poh (Beaming Books, 2021). Squirrel is excited about the Winter Warmup party, but when she puts on her favorite sweater (knitted by Granny Gray) it’s considerably smaller and tighter then the previous winter. She asks her friends for help, but despite their best intentions, the sweater gets ripped and unraveled. Clever Squirrel has a solution though, upcycling the sweater materials to make a lovely, huggable heart pillow.

You’ll need:

  • 1 large tissue box
  • Construction paper
  • Red felt
  • Cotton stuffing
  • Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
  • Markers for decorating
  • Hot glue

Our project is very simple! Use brown construction paper to cover a large tissue box, then add a tail, ears, and feet. Use another color construction paper (we went with red) to create a sweater for your squirrel, then add two arms that circle around the front of the squirrel like so:

To make the squirrel’s sweater extra dynamic, we offered a variety of colorful fabric squares for texture. We also attached wiggle eyes and a self-adhesive foam nose, but those are just as easy to draw on with markers.

We absolutely loved the sweet pillow in the book (and there are instructions for making your very own “no sew” pillow at the end of the book – awesome!). To create a mini pillow, glue two felt hearts together, then stuff them with cotton. Top off the look with an (optional) ribbon bow.

The heart pillow slides right into squirrel’s arms for a sweet hug, just like the story! Aww!

Alice’s Adventures on the Bookshelf

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We swore it would never happen again. Never EVER would we put together another miniature library kit. Gentle people of the jury, I present exhibits A, B, and C as evidence. But then Katie found the most adorable Alice in Wonderland miniature puzzle kit at our local toy store, and she went right back down that rabbit hole. Was it an adventure in wonderland for Katie? Read on to find out!

Here we go again! Leave it to our friends at Princeton’s fabulous toy store, Jazams, to convince us to break the promise we made ourselves to NOT build another miniature library kit. To be fair, this Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland inspired diorama bookend is so cool, it was basically a forgone conclusion we would change our minds.

The Tonecheer Alice’s Adventure 3D Puzzle (HTQ128) is quite similar to the Sunshine Town book nook I tackled in 2023, though there are some differences that make this kit both faster and easier to build. It is available for purchase on Amazon for $42.99, the difficulty rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars and, like our other three kits, the age suggestion is 14+.

Upon opening the box, I found multiple precut wood plates with various sized pieces and parts that needed to be carefully popped out. There was an 11 x17 inch folded instruction sheet, the electronic lighting kit, and construction items to assist with the build (batteries not included).

The most important tool was the “Three-in-one Tool” wood piece, which was critical in saving my fingertips and, in some instances, my sanity as I was trying to push smaller pieces out of the plates as well as connecting bits and parts together.

One extremely nice touch to this kit is all of the pieces are ready to go right out of the box. Zero paint required. There are parts that need to be glued together, but even those are few and far between. Assisted by the handy “Three-in-one Tool,” I quickly put together the two levels of Alice’s adventure. The instructions were clear and very easy to understand. All told, it took about three hours to finish.

During the build, I had one struggle and made one mistake. The struggle was building the stump that surrounds the infamous rabbit hole where Alice falls. It took nearly ten attempts to connect the smallish pieces in a circle and then push the tabs of the round stump into the wood base. My once nimble fingers are clearly not as nimble.

My mistake was forgetting to tuck the light power cord behind two bars that connect the ceiling of Wonderland to the grassy ground. I completely missed the arrows and typed message alerting me to route the wires in a certain direction. Thankfully it was relatively easy to work backward, take sections apart and correct the error, but it was still a “duh!” moment.

There’s a lot to look at in the 3D Puzzle book nook! Alice herself is floating inside, along with the White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat. The mirrors at the back of the nook offer a deeper look to see all of the charming details.

As I mentioned, this kit is wired for lights, and it has a motion sensor to wow your friends as they walk by. The motion light illuminates for one minute before turning off, but the sensor is sensitive enough to quickly turn the light back on with gentle movement.

Has Alice surpassed the other builds as my favorite miniature library? No, I’m still enamored with the Sunshine Town cats! I will say Alice’s Adventure 3D Puzzle was the least tedious mini library build. It would also be much better for our younger crafters, though they may need an adult to help with installing the electronics. Another 4.5 out of 5 stars rating from me!