The Great Catsby

It’s the party to end all parties, old sport! To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of “The Great Gatsby” this April, Princeton University Library held a suite of on- and off-campus programming inspired by the library’s significant F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Great Gatsby” related holdings. The Cotsen Children’s Library joined the festivities with our own event full of frivolity and splendor with a decidedly feline twist. We called it…“The Great Catsby!”

We don’t normally do decor at our events, but we we couldn’t resist decking the gallery out with dazzling gold tinsel and Art Deco photo backdrops. Luckily, “Gatsby” is a popular prom theme, so there was no shortage of inexpensive resources to choose from.

As some of you may have already guessed, the gold tinsel almost stole the entire show. Kids ran through it, swatted it, wore it as hair, and sat quietly with it tickling their faces. They also pulled it out in handfuls and threw it all over the gallery. It was a total mess after the event, and we’re still finding strands of tinsel in the library, but it was worth it!

At the back of the gallery, amidst strains of period jazz music, was cat mask decorating. We offered metallic markers, gold leaves, twisteez wire, stickers, glitter shapes, tiny bows, self-adhesive jewels, feathers, and metallic paper. There were three types of white paper masks to choose from. The most popular by far was the full cat face:

We also offered a smaller, more focused art activity elsewhere in the gallery – coloring sheets that featured the work of British artist Louis Wain, who was popular during the Gatsby era! Wain became famous for his drawings of cats depicted with human-like appearance and behavior, and we pulled images from our special collections to share with the community.

If you’d like to try the Louis Wain coloring sheets yourself (and others from our collections), visit Coloring Cotsen, our coloring sheet central!

For the adventurous, we ran a “Literary Cats Scavenger Hunt” in the gallery during the event. Kids were invited to find 10 page-famous cats: The Cat in the Hat, The Cheshire Cat, Crookshanks, Felix, Garfield, Hobbes, Pete, Puss in Boots, Skippyjon Jones, and Tigger. There was also a cameo appearance of Zelda Fitzgerald’s kitty, Chopin.

It was interesting to see which literary cats kids were familiar with, and which ones completely stumped them. The two most recognized were The Cat in Hat and Hobbes, and the two least recognized were Felix and Crookshanks.

Speaking of familiar cats, we thought it would be fun to ask library staff to submit portraits for a “Match the Librarian to Their Cat” game. Hint: staff wore their cat’s colors, and even hilariously replicated their poses and expressions.

Our Great Catsby event was also a cat food drive to benefit SAVE, our local animal shelter and all around wonderful organization! Founded in 1941, SAVE is a non-profit that strives to shelter, foster, heal, and re-home dogs and cats.

What can we say? It was a PARTY! The Great Catsby was light, lively, festive, and fun. Best of all, SAVE shelter was gifted lots of cat food for kitties waiting for their forever homes!

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Many thanks to staff members Maria Gorbunova, Morgan Kirkpatrick, Hilary Murusmith, Lisa Read, Emma Sarconi, Dana Sheridan, Eric White, and feline friends Beatrix, Benny, Cleo, George, Saoirse, Sneeze and Qalilaan for participating in the matching game!

Blog artwork by WildmenagerieArt

Ah, Those Cows and Flowers

Spend a peaceful afternoon in the fields, enjoying the beautiful flowers and warm sunshine. Gentle cow and cork trees included!

We read The Story of Ferdinand, written by by Munro Leaf, and illustrated Robert Lawson (Viking, 1936). This literary classic tells the tale of Ferdinand, a bull who would rather sit and smell the flowers than fuss and fight. When he is mistakenly put in the bull ring, Ferdinand stays true to his peaceful nature and refuses to charge. It’s the ultimate tale of staying true to yourself and being happier for it.

You’ll need:

  • 1 large tissue box
  • 1 flower coloring template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock
  • Construction paper
  • Assorted pipe cleaners
  • Scissors and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

This project is basically an alternative version of the flower boxes we made for this butterfly garden story time. We just used large tissue boxes instead of box tops.

finished butterfly gardenIn additional to using the flowers on the template, you can also use tissue paper to make lovely flowers, and use drinking straws and sparkle stems to add some texture!

Once the flowers were done, we headed out to the fields to meet Ferdinand the bull! I made him out of a couple shipping boxes. The back of the head was open so I could reach in, and I also cut a hole at the bottom of the head as a “mouth.” During story time, the kids offered their flowers to Ferdinand for sniffing. I had a little air pump inside the head that would puff air out and make the flowers tremble.

I have to say, the air puffs freaked a few kids out. But we also had a basket of red pom pom apples nearby to feed Ferdinand, and that was a massively popular activity. He ate apples for a solid 15 minutes!

This this isn’t the first time Ferdinand has appeared on the blog. You can see him enjoying the spring buds here (as well as a really cool wildflower identification website), and he gets a mention in our International Children’s Book Day list here. We love you Ferdinand!

Book Title Mash Up

Does your taste in books vary wildly? No problem, just combine them! We designed this book title mashup activity as an ice breaker for Cotsen Critix, our literary society for kids ages 9-12. It was inspired by the hilarious Very Condensed Book postcards designed by Hilary Brown Greetings.

The kids had a fantastic timer recounting titles and mixing them up, as well as talking to each other about the books they love. Here’s our favorite dozen…

Are you my Mother, Harry Potter?
The Twilight Games
We the Big Idea Math People
Beauty and the Deathly Hallows
Warriors on the Prairie
Snow White and the Titan’s Curse
Under the Holes
A Wind in the Wardrobe
Go BFG Go!
Where the Sidewalk Ends Wild Things Are
If You Give a Mouse a Chocolate Factory
The Confessions of Charlotte’s Web