Your leisurely visit to the zoo will be extra special thanks to this snazzy story time stroller. But wait! Is that…a penguin???

We read Vampenguin by Lucy Ruth Cummins (Atheneum, 2021). When the Dracula family visits the zoo, their first stop is the Penguin House. Everything seems fine until readers discover that the youngest member of the Dracula family has swapped places with a penguin! Penguin is soon enjoying the free zoo tour and stroller ride immensely. But back in the Penguin House, toddler Dracula is causing quite a stir. Can the two secretly switch back without the Dracula family finding out?

Unique and quirky with a hilarious double narrative, we highly recommend this book!

You’ll need:

• 1 small oatmeal container
• Construction paper
• 1 large tissue box
• A selection of color masking tape
• 1 pair of chopsticks
• 1 bubble tea straw
• 1 plastic tape core
• 1 wheel assembly (more on this later!)
• Scissors, glue, and tape for construction
• A box cutter
• Hot glue

Let’s start with the penguin, which is a small oatmeal container decorated with construction paper. We did dot stickers eyes and a self-adhesive foam beak, but you can just use markers as well.

Now for the stroller! It’s a little bit technical to construct, but worth it. The kids loved it!

We used a 4.5” X 4.5” x 9” white craft box, but a large tissue box works too! First, cut the top or lid off the box and set it aside for later. Next, cut a large notch in the side of the box, as seen below. This notch ultimately becomes the canopy of your stroller:

Set the box upright (notched end up) and use a box cutter to create two slits in both sides of the top. Insert a chopstick about 2″ into each slit, then secure the chopsticks to the inside of the box with hot glue. It might seem easier to attach the chopsticks to the outside of the box, but we found that they ripped off almost immediately during use.

We also recommend hot gluing the cardboard that was once your box’s lid to the inside of the stroller. Not only does it make it look cleaner, it also safely covers the pointy ends of the chopsticks. Decorate the stroller with color masking tape and/or markers.

The stroller handle is a bubble tea straw bent into thirds and attached to the ends of the chopsticks with color masking tape.

Finally…the wheels! It took us a couple prototypes before we finally hit on the winning design. As it turns out, the front of the stroller has to be slightly elevated in order to keep the penguin from tumbling out AND give it that classic stroller tilt. We taped a basic wheel assembly to the back of the stroller box, then used a scotch tape core to act as the front wheel. Here’s what a completed set up looks like from underneath:

Your stroller is finished and you’re ready to go, be you a penguin or a vampire toddler!