Where Reading Met Eating—

Winners Announced, Then Creations Shared, Following Edible Book Contest

By Shannon Hicks

Brody Cook had something to say about each entry in C.H. Booth Library’s Edible Book Contest.

The 14-month-old was in the audience Saturday afternoon as judges Liz Luzetti and Rachel Crosby announced the honors for each entry in the competition, and young Brody gave a squeal of joy after each award was read. It was just one more light moment of many following a morning of celebrating creativity and light-hearted competition hosted by the library.

The library received 31 entries for its new contest, with children, families, and adults all entering creations that were edible, family friendly, and somehow related to a book. Entries ranges from cakes and cupcakes to constructions and creations, all of which were displayed in the library’s meeting room for two hours of judging on July 16.

Veda Broderick and her aunt, Lindsay Broderick, collaborated for two entries. The pair entered a large layer cake that resembled a stack of books from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and a cupcake creation that replicated a two-page spread from Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. Like all who entered the contest, the pair were willing to answer questions from fellow entrants, as well as those who were visiting the library on Saturday, about the materials they used and how they decided to decorate their creation.

The two took home Best Professional Use of Fondant for the Wimpy Kid cake, and Most Detailed for The Giving Tree. They also picked up the Silver Spoon Award (a/k/a The People’s Choice Award), the one trophy given out on Saturday, for their Diary of A Wimpy Kid collaboration.

(Brody Cook’s cheers were a little louder when Veda and Lindsay’s names were called out. The toddler is Lindsay’s nephew, and Veda’s cousin.)

The second major award to be announced on Saturday afternoon was the Judges’ Choice, which went to Paula and Mackenzie Hughes. The mother-daughter team honored the nursery rhyme “Sing A Song of Sixpence” by baking an apple-rhubarb pie and then using prunes and sunflower seeds to make it look like — what else? — 24 blackbirds were coming from the cooked pastry.

“We do the {Newtown Youth & Family Services Holiday Festival] gingerbread contest, so this was a midyear thing and it was a lot of fun,” said Paula Hughes, who credited daughter Mackenzie with deciding to go with the Mother Goose nursery rhyme for their entry. “She came up with that right off the bat.”

“They look terrible and they taste pretty bad,” Ms Hughes said, with a laugh, of the unsulphured prunes, “but there were a great medium for the birds.”

Moira McKinley took the advice of one of the contest’s few rules, which suggested that entries could be a pun on the title. Judges Liz Luzetti and Rachel Crosby awarded her with Most Creative/Best Pun for her use of scones in honoring Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone.

“We liked the use of scones,” Liz commented. “That was very clever.”

Evan Craybas also listened to the contest’s rules, which stated that entries did “do not have to be cakes, or even require cooking at all, as long as they are edible.” The 8-year-old went with dozens of Swedish fish and one gummy bear to create the title character of Leo Lionni’s Swimmy. It earned him a nod from the judges for Best Shaped.

Sarah Annesley and Sophie Kennen were honored with Best Interpretation of a Book. The girls had created a wedding cake that looked like it had seen better days. Covered with (plastic) bugs, with faded flowers and a leaning newlyweds cake topper, Sarah and Sophie’s recreation of the cake that was to be eaten on what was supposed to be Miss Havisham’s happiest day.

“I was so impressed at how young, and accomplished some of these creators were,” said Librarian Kim Weber, who had heard about libraries across the country doing similar competitions and decided to try it in Newtown. “The attention to detail, and the creativity, right from their pantries,” she said.

“They didn’t go out and spend a lot of money on things. They really used materials they had on hand, and did amazing things. There was no prefab stuff. Newtowners were very creative,” Ms Weber continued. “And they were so proud of what they had done, and were so very proud to talk about what they had done. They put a lot of thought into their creations.

“I really thought they were clever. I just couldn’t get over the creativity.”

Entries were divided into seven categories: grades K–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, and high school, as well as Family and Adult.

“Judging was very difficult,” Ms Luzetti said, apologizing for holding the group in the library’s meeting room longer than had been planned. “It was really hard. We wanted to give blue ribbons to everyone.”

The judges had promised in advance to award a Judges’ Favorite honor and to announce The Silver Spoon Award winner, but ended up offering certificates to everyone who entered the contest. Each certificate was accompanied by a gift certificate to Ferris Acres Creamery.

“It was very hard to judge, and categorize, these entries,” Ms Luzetti told the few dozen people assembled in the library’s meeting room for the results. It took a few extra minutes before they could announce the results, but the two judges had honors for everyone who had taken the time to enter.

Andrea’s Pastry Shop provided two trays of cookies for voters, and those offerings were completely gone by noon. The good news was, once the awards were presented there were more cake and cupcakes for everyone. Most people who entered the contest began cutting into their award-winning creations and sharing them with the crowd.

Kim Weber said it was “a great surprise” how many residents responded to the contest.

“We were really pleased, especially for our first time [with the contest],” Ms Weber said. “We had hoped for ten entries, had 35 people sign up for it, and 31 showed up the day of the competition.”

If you missed out on the inaugural Booth Library Edible Book Contest, don’t despair. Ms Weber is already looking ahead to the 2nd Annual Edible Book Contest.

“Thank you everyone,” Ms Weber said after the judges read all of their honors on Saturday. “We’ll do this again.”

“We had a lot of fun,” she told The Newtown Bee on Monday. “We’re hoping to do it again next year. I can’t wait to see what people come up with.”

Brody Cook, who cheered for every other announcement Saturday afternoon, should be very pleased with that news.

Visit www.NewtownBee.com to see this story, which has a slideshow with images of every entry from C.H. Booth Library’s Edible Book Contest, and the names and honors of each entrant.