Tag Archives: Sayantani Dasgupta

The Holly and the Ivy (and we mean that quite literally)!

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It’s time to deck the halls, and this historical house pulled out all the stops, compliments of the talented individuals in the West Trenton Garden Club! In today’s post, we’re visiting the holiday display inside the library at Drumthwacket, the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey. This year, the theme was children’s literature, and the exhibit featured ten different tables with innovative and gorgeous takes on holiday classics! Katie’s been a docent at Drumthwacket for over a decade, and she is going to do her docent duty and drop in cool little facts as we meander through this delightful tour. Her parts will be in italics!

The library was added to Drumthwacket by the second private owner, Moses Taylor Pyne. Pyne graduated from Princeton in 1877 and never missed a meeting during his 37 year tenure on the University Board of Trustees.

Here’s another glimpse at the arrangement that started this post – a table for Jan Brett’s fantastic books, including The Mitten and The Hat. Did you notice the little pine cone owl in the mitten? Adorable.

Another cozy classic is Nutcracker, written by E.T.A. Hoffman, and illustrated by Maurice Sendak (and here’s a little Sendak special collections gem for you to enjoy as well).

Nearby was a Nutcracker-inspired tree festooned with sweet little ballet ornaments:

At the next display, the West Trenton Garden Club stole my heart with this innovative white carnation snowman, aptly paired with Raymond Brigg’s classic The Snowman. Look that snowman’s little baby carrot nose. Perfection!

The fireplace is one large block of Caen stone from France, which was brought to Drumthwacket and carved onsite by stonemasons. Can you see the Princeton University shield hidden in the middle of the fireplace?

Up next we have none other than Charlie Brown and his little tree that could…

And a Mexican holiday legend retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. If you’re a fan of dePaola’s work, don’t miss this original Strega Nona gingerbread cottage. Its massively talented architect, Jen Carson, would return to our blog eleven years later with her own bakery and children’s book!

Caldecott Medal winner The Polar Express made an appearance. My son would have absolutely loved this display for the trains – it’s simply not the holidays without trains!:

The Polar Express rests on Moses Taylor Pyne’s partner desk, which is original to the room. The desk has two complete working sets of drawers on each side, allowing two people to easily work across from each other.

Rudolph flew in for a visit to Drumthwacket as well. See the books on the shelf behind him? That’s just one small section of a massive floor to ceiling bookcase stuffed with children’s books exclusively authored by New Jersey writers, including Sayantani DasGupta, who we interview here!

This next table is one of our absolutely favorites. Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, which boasted a delightful sled bouquet in a decorated sack.

And to the person who created a Grinch out of evergreen branches and a painted vase? You made our hearts grow three sizes larger. You deserve a gold medal for creativity, and I hope you don’t mind if I replicate this idea for my front porch next year? Incredible!

The library’s diamond shape leaded glass windows are adorned with different images, including a sailboat, the fleur de lis, a bow and arrow, and the anchor and serpent. East Pyne Hall, which used to be Princeton University’s main library and is named after Pyne, has the very same style of leaded glass windows.

Finally we come to the grand finale, and this was just so touching and innovative. A table featuring Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The three ghosts are represented with delicate custom bouquets. I don’t know when or how, but we are going to do something with this idea in the future. It’s absolutely wonderful.

Many thanks to Drumthwacket for allowing us to photograph their display, and a hearty round of applause to the West Trenton Garden Club for their masterful creations. Thank you too, Docent Katie for your awesome historical facts. Happy holidays, one and all!

A Moving Map

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a moving mapA shifting map full of flying horses, hungry demons, mystical landscapes, and the New Jersey turnpike? This could only be a project for To Be Continued, our chapter book story time for ages 6-8!

We read The Serpent’s Secret: Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond by Sayantani Dasgupta, with illustrations by Vivienne To (Scholastic, 2018). Kiranmala is a regular girl, living in New Jersey with her loving, if not slightly eccentric, parents. For example, they insist that every Halloween (which also happens to be her birthday), she dress as an Indian princess, complete with bangles, necklaces, and a silk sari. In fact, they insist she is a REAL Indian princess. Oh, and they also want her to sleep with the curtains open during a full moon, and dig a snake moat around the house.

Everything changes the day Kiran turns 12. Her parents disappear, a rakkhosh demon demolishes her house, and 2 princes on flying horses (one armed with a sword, the other with sarcasm) inform her that she is, indeed, a princess from another dimension. Now Kiran must rescue her parents, save her friends, and discover who she really is in the process.

In the book, Kiran and her “friend” Prince Neel (it’s complicated) use a moving map to locate Kiran’s parents. As the name suggests, the land masses in Kiran’s dimension don’t stay in one place, they shift – requiring a map that can shift as well. Hmmmm…a continuously shifting landscape? Sounds like a job for myriorama cards!

myriorama cards for the serpents secret combo 1Myriorama cards, which debuted in 19th century Europe, are these cool little decks of cards with matching skies and horizon lines (I review of a modern deck of myriorama cards in this post). No matter what order you put the cards in, they always sync to create a continuous landscape or story. See how I flipped the above cards around a little to make a new map below?

myriorama cards for the serpents secret combo 2You’ll need:

  • 1 pack of 3″ x 5″ blank white index cards
  • Pen and markers/color pencils

It’s easiest to use 3″ x 5″ blank index cards. On the first card, use a pen to mark where you want your horizon and land lines to go. Next, mark the other cards in the deck, making sure they all match. Now draw a landscape or scene on each card, always matching the horizon and land lines.

moving map stepsFor our story time activity, I gave each kid a colorful envelope bedecked with a silver embossed foil seal (a subtle nod to a moon maiden in the book). Inside the envelope were 6 finished myriorama cards to get the kids started (including characters and scenes from the book, of course!). The cards were black and white so the kids could color them in. There were 3 blank cards in the envelope, as well as a stack of more blank cards, so they could let their imaginations run free.

Also in the envelope? Some large gemstones – another nod to the book. One story time kid got the Serpent’s Secret reference right away. He grabbed a blank myriorama card and quickly sketched a moving map, then gazed through the Python Jewel to decipher it! #superproudliteracyeducator

moving map and the python jewel If you’d like the myriorama cards I drew, you’ll find the black and white template here, and the color template here. However! I will say the cards are not perfect. The horizon and land lines matched up when I drew them, but somehow between scanning them, setting them, and turning them into a pdf they don’t quite match up on the final templates. Did the kids care? They did not.

Also! I’m not a trained artist…even though I have to say, I liked how my rakkosh turned out.