Recipes with a Comic Twist

Cole Zrostlik, youth services librarian at both St. Croix Falls and Milltown, has received an Ezra Jack Keats mini-grant for the St. Croix Falls Public Library.  The Ezra Jack Keats mini-grants are $500 grants for projects that "foster creative expression, working together, and interaction with a diverse community."

Cole will use the money for supplies and publicity for a series of workshops this fall for kids (and other community members) to create a comic book cookbook.  Each person will create a graphic recipe.  Cole came up with this idea because when she's had comics classes in the past, kids are often stymied by coming up with a plot.  By creating comic-recipes, they won't have to think so much about plot, but more about other important elements of comics--order, sequencing, and developing visual literacy skills.

Cole is hoping to have an art show at the end of the workshop series, and then to create a recipe book to sell and also a zine for contributors.  The recipe book might include some non-graphic recipes, too--it seems like a much more exciting format for a community recipe book, and Cole is hoping to get a variety of people in the community involved with the project.  As for the funds, Cole says she has $700 in her budget for her entire summer library program, so $500 for this project will be wonderful and luxurious.

If you are mystified about what a comic recipe might look like, check out this one, which Cole created for her brother, who, after a month of living on his own had lost 17 pounds because he didn't know how to cook!



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