Thornapple Kellogg — Fourth-grader Jackie Looid used googly eyes and cotton swabs to transform an ordinary potato into Harry “Potater,” modeled after literary wizard Harry Potter.
Her classmate Braydon Bender was also inspired by the Harry Potter series to create a cast of a-peeling characters.
The personality-loaded potatoes were created during a project led by media center specialist Jessica Shuck, who wanted to try something new for National Reading Month this year. Shuck challenged her students to create a book character using a whole potato and any other materials they wanted. At the end of the month, staff voted on the craftiest potatoes and the winners were announced.
“I found the idea online and loved the creativity and randomness of it,” Shuck said.
Fifth-grader Mika Martinez’s potato won first place in her grade for her detailed depiction of Roz from “The Wild Robot.”
“My class is reading ‘The Wild Robot’ so I just decided, why not make a robot?” she said.
Inspired by online drawings of the character, Mika used two potatoes and clay to sculpt the robot-potato.
Fourth-grader Emma McKeown said she drew inspiration from a book series she is currently reading and brought to life at Page’s recent wax museum.
“I was Laura Ingalls Wilder in our wax museum and have been reading her books, so I decided to make her as a potato,” she said.
Emma and her mom tried using a muffin liner and a coffee filter to make the potato’s prairie-inspired bonnet and finally succeeded by cutting up an American Girl Doll skirt.
“As I was doing it, I kind of forgot it was a weird thing we were doing,” she added. “I had a vision in my head but then when I finished it, it turned out good.”
Root Vegetables Encourage Reading
Fourth-grader Rose Forman said creating a potato character from her sister’s favorite book, “Wings of Fire” helped her identify the main character and encouraged her to read the book.
Emma added that for people in the world who hate reading, making book characters into potatoes can showcase a wide variety of characters and get more people to read books.
Shuck said creating a contest based on book characters got students thinking more deeply about books and main characters.
She said, “They’re thinking and creating and are excited about reading these books or another in the same series.”
Read more from Thornapple Kellogg:
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• For long-time librarian, changing with the times is a must
