Tag Archives: images

Animals in Kodomo no Kuni

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It’s time for the annual #ColorOurCollections, hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine! Each year libraries, archives, and cultural institutions around the world share free coloring sheets based on their collections.We’ve shared birds and alphabets, but this year we just wanted…CUTE ANIMALS. So we delved into our vaults for Kodomo no kuni (The Land of Children), a Japanese children’s magazine that was in circulation from 1922-1944. It did not disappoint!

You can find our awesome coloring pages here, and you can read more about the magazine in this excellent post on Cotsen’s curatorial blog. If you’re still hankering for cute animals, try some of our blog projects, starting with this bouncy bunny cup!

Or fancy up a hamster…

furry and fabulousPerhaps you’d like to expand to entire household with this tiny dog house

itty bitty home

Or craft a very learned canary…

tweet-reading-is-sweetEven alligators can be cute (and this one is a chomping puppet!):

finished alligator puppetOr make up your own animal entirely!

be you

The End

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the endSpoiler-heavy free write anyone? All you need are old photos, pen, paper, and a moment to ponder how to tell a story – by only writing its ending! This exercise premiered at Cotsen Critix, our literary society for kids ages 9-12.

At the program, we scattered a bunch of old newspaper and magazine photos on the tables (thanks library recycling program!) and instructed the kids to select an image, Then, they wrote the final paragraph of a story, with the selected image serving as the very last scene.

I also ask them to think about a few things before they got started: Who are your characters? What happened in the story? What’s the resolution of the story? How can you conclude the story without summarizing it? How does everything come down to this image?

It was a challenging prompt, but check out some of these seriously cool endings…

whale photo

Kate and Tristan turned around when they heard the huge SPLASH! Winston dove out of the water, splashing happily. Kate smiled “He looks happy here.” Tristan nodded and called out to Winston.

“Goodbye Winston! We’ll miss you!”

Winston dove down and disappeared into a patch of soft sea foam, creating another splash. Katie turned to Tristan “Well, he’s finally safe from Envetson and his henchmen now, all thanks to us.”

 

man and elephant photo

As I turned, Hannibal tooted as if to say I’ve been with you these last 50 years. I’ve been with you when you were at death’s door. I’m not going anywhere. “I’m going to miss you old friend.” I choked out. The great beast threw this head back and trumpeted so loudly, so deafeningly, I almost thought he was laughing. He then lifted me up on his back. I laughed. “Well then, one last ride.”

 

panda bear photoThe very last thing I could remember seeing was… a panda eating bamboo. And then my eyes refused to cooperate any longer. Blackness. I can only remember the crunch and the green. That’s it. Memories are weird like that, you can always remember the most bizarre parts. Even with my eyes closed, I can taste the dew on the nearby grass. I still feel the presence of a fluffy being right beside me, chomping away. Crackle. Snap. That’s all…

 

 

Images used in this post may be subject to copyright. Please contact danas@princeton.edu if you are the author of one or more of images used here and have objection in such a use