fairy godmother | Pop Goes the Page

school for scoundrels

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

gandalf headache 2_4 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

team coverall 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

school for scoundrels 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

royal pie

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

ladies of the manor 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

dracula actresses 3 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.

Your fairy godmother has arrived! Yes, this fairy godmother grants wishes. But be careful. You’ll get what you ask for, but it might not be exactly what you expect! Meet Sylvia Jacobson. She’s a sophomore at Princeton University, an Environmental Engineering major, and a creative contributor to Cotsen Critix, our children’s literary group for ages 9-12. And this year, she was the group’s official fairy godmother.

At the beginning of the Cotsen Critix programming year, Sylvia asked each group member to make 3 wishes. She selected 1 of the 3 wishes for each kid and, over the course of the program, she would start each session by granting a wish.

Sylvia adapted the fairy godmother activity from a “Wish Night” she used to run at a sleep-away camp (a shout out to Habonim Dror Camp Moshava!). Sylvia and her fellow counselors would ask the kids to write down their wishes without telling them why. Then, on the appointed night, the wishes would be granted to the campers, which meant over 100 wishes total in one night!

The Cotsen Critix were warned that Sylvia was a literal fairy godmother. Not only did she get quite specific in granting wishes, she also invoked wordplay to achieve some truly hilarious results. Here are a couple examples of Sylvia’s handiwork:

Wish: “A pair of UGGs”

Wish: “Infinity money”

Wish: “A pig stuffed animal”

In case it’s not clear in the photo, that’s an elephant stuffed with pigs.

Wish: “I wish we can have a peaceful world”

One peas-full world, coming up!

Wish: “To travel in outer space without any equipment or trouble”

The kid was instructed to travel around outside the area marked “space” without carrying any of the equipment or touching the board game Trouble.

Wish: “To have a 100 dollars”

Rip a 100 dollar “bill” in half and yes! You halve a 100 dollars.

Wish: “5 more wishes”

Ah, the classic I’m-trying-to-break-the-system-wish. I’ll admit, this was mine. The fairy godmother, however, was ready for me. She handed me a piece of paper and asked me to write down 5 more wishes. Then, she took the paper from me…and immediately handed it back. Voila! Sylvia had officially given me 5 more wishes.

And now all the world can see that I don’t know how to spell the word “Play-doh.”

Doh!

The fairy godmother was a huge hit. Almost all of the kids mentioned this activity was one of their favorites this year. Sylvia’s favorite part? “The Critix’s surprised reactions. It was fun to give everyone what they asked for but not what they expected. Also, I loved the arguments each week as the Critix tried to convince me that I couldn’t be a real fairy. I’m still not convinced.”

While Sylvia typically made her visits sporting fabric wings and carrying a homemade wand, on the last day of the program we surprised the kids by having her appear in a full-on, puffy, fluffy, sparkly and splendid fairy godmother costume.

The dress was actually an old wedding dress I found in a local thrift/consignment shop called Nearly New. The owners were delighted by the project and gave me a wonderful deal on it. We added some pieces of rainbow tulle to match the wings, and borrowed a tiara and necklace from the University’s Lewis Center costume shop. The results were fabulous.

Make a wish!

Special thanks to the Lewis Center for the Arts’ costume shop and the Nearly New Shop for making our fairy godmother extra magical.

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