Happy Halloween everyone! October 31st is certainly about candy, yes. But here at the Cotsen Children’s Library, it’s also about COSTUMES. Over the years, we’ve had a number of costume connections to literary characters and events, and today we wanted to share our thirteen favorites on this oh-so-spooky holiday!
#1 EDGAR ALLAN POE
Starting the post off with the master of suspense himself, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. This was a simple shoulder raven project, photographed in the gorgeous Scheide Library. Fun fact: Dr. Dana went to grad school at the University of Virginia, where Poe was enrolled in 1826!
#2 DOLORES UMBRIGDE, Et Al.
We challenged Princeton University student James Jared to put together as many literary characters as he could in 180 minutes…using only what he could find on the racks of a local thrift store! He did not disappoint! Check out all nine costumes here!
#3 GANDALF THE GREY
2023 summer intern Daniel Dias not only got to test a LOTR escape room…he also learned that no one enters the orbit of Cotsen Outreach without eventually wearing a costume! His turn as the iconic wizard has officially earned him the now-and-future title of “Dandolf.”
#4 ROBOT
On the topic of being cajoled into costumes, we present Ian Dooley, Cotsen’s former Curatorial Assistant, who climbed into a robot costume to make a story time wish come true. Ian is now working on his Ph.D. at the University of London. There is a correlation in here somewhere.
#5 THE PIT CREW
While these costumes might not seem terribly exciting, Katie and I both wanted to include them on the list. Our pit crew coveralls served as well at a Cars and Trucks and Things that Go creative event. We have worn a LOT of event costumes over the years, but these took the trophy for comfort and practicality on a very busy day!
#6 EPIC VILLAINS
An entire event full of literary villains? YES. A team of Princeton University students gleefully taught children how to be nefarious, naughty, and nay-saying!
#7 FAIRY GODMOTHER
Switching over to the forces of good, we have Princeton University student Sylvia Jacobson, who gamely stepped up to be a Literal Fairy Godmother for our children’s literary society. Here we see her sporting an old wedding dress I spruced up with some rainbow fabric. Sylvia the Sparkly granted wishes very specifically. Definitely check out the post for a good chuckle!
#8 STORY TIME ROYALTY
What could have been just an average story time seriously leveled up when Katie and I discovered these costumes at the Lewis Center for the Arts. Pizza was never so faaaaaancy!
#9 ELOISE & MYTHOLOGY
When our library re-opened after an extensive year-long renovation, we threw a big party and invited everyone to dress in literary costumes. Katie came as Eloise and I was the Dewey Decimal classification for Mythology. And yes, 291.13 was written on my arm!
#10 VICTORIAN LADIES
One of my favorite programs was a historic Victorian tea, complete with costumes, games, and a glorious tea time (blog readers might recognize our beloved Miss Marissa in the middle and Princeton University student Joani Etskovitz on the right). Some of the kids came dressed for tea too! I won’t divulge any more…definitely go check out the post!
#11 PIRATE & VIKING
A story time featuring Jared Chapman’s hilarious book Pirate, Viking & Scientist got all the kids giggling. But when two staff members at Little, Brown decided to wear our project at the publishing house’s annual Halloween party? We were THRILLED!
#12 STEAM PUNK SPELUNKERS
Here we have three Victorian spelunkers at a massive Journey to the Centre of the Earth event we hosted in 2013. On the right is Princeton University student Kim Freid. As you can see, we were ready to tackle anything the day threw at us, thanks to all the ancient camping equipment I scored on ebay!
#13 DOOMED HEIRESSES
We started this post with Poe, and we’ll finish with the equally gothic Bram Stoker. Behold two kidnapped heiresses – myself and Special Collections Reference Professional Emma Sarconi. We’re preparing to scream and swoon our heart’s out in Katie’s masterful Dracula escape room. The jump scares were FABULOUS.
It might be a smaller, simpler Halloween this year, but that doesn’t mean it has to be any less spirited (oooo bad pun alert!). We decided to do a round up of our Halloween posts for you to peruse, just in case you needed some projects, activities, costumes, or inspiration. But if you are just here to see Katie’s ingenious candy chute, scroll to the end of the post!
You had a shadowy sneak peek 
The kids quickly realized they had to find the key to my handcuffs to solve the room, and so the game began! Here’s Katie’s masterful escape room, with all the solutions.
The metal box was unlocked, and buried under some glass beads was a key…
The key opened a padlock on 1 of the wood boxes. Inside was a playing card marked with a Roman numeral (there were 7 playing cards altogether).
Elsewhere in the room were 3 more playing cards:
And 1 playing card was taped to the back of a vintage photo:
Specifically, this image of Dracula’s hand pointing to 3 color candles…
Kids had to make the connection to the image, get the colors in the right order, and then find the numbers taped to the bottom of the candles. That combination opened the wooden box with the 7th, and final, playing card.
And inside the book safe? A UV flashlight. Which they needed to shine on the “Please help me” letter below. If they needed a little hint to find it, I started swooning again and muttering “It is written in blood…it is written in blood…”
The UV light revealed this:
An additional clue was on a bottle of (fake) blood, which sat next to a bottle of salt and a bottle of dirt.
The UV light revealed this clue:
This sent kids running over to a large map of Transylvania. There were 7 locations highlighted on the map, each labeled with Roman numerals.
Using the numbered list on the “Help Me” letter, kids found the corresponding locations on the map, then matched the Roman numeral to the playing card, and THEN used the regular number on the playing card to string together a 3 digit code.
That code unlocked a big master lock hidden behind a folding mirror on the table. The master lock contained the key to my handcuffs.
The color candles we used were Candle Waves multi-color remote control candles (yup, you can use a remote to change the color…hilarious). They were a $2 thrift store score.
Unfortunately, the candles sometimes switched color when the kids banged them down on the table, which ruined the clue. So if you’re going to include this puzzle, buy candles with flames that stay ONE color, or candles with color pillars.