Scrumptious celebration: Library marks anniversary with Edible Book Fest

UW-Green Bay’s Cofrin Library held its first-ever Edible Book Festival Feb. 27, inviting the campus community to create, view — and of course, eat — delectable submissions representing favorite books. From the literal to the groan-out-loud pun-y, these scrumptious selections helped the library commemorate its 40th anniversary in style. Here’s what some of the participants had to say:

Library Director Paula Ganyard:
“The edible books can be anything from just reproducing the cover of your favorite book or a book that meant something to you. And then you can also do sort of a fun interpretation of them — so my entry, ‘Dying for Chocolate,’ has little gingerbread men lying down like dead bodies with this enormous cake around them, and all these chocolates — to funny things, like you could have a bowl of chicken wings and it’d be ‘A Farewell to Arms,’ or some sort of pun like that on it.”

Emily Rogers, Library coordinator of public services:
“I just kept thinking of words that had food titles in them and I came up with Seabiscuit. Then I thought ‘Vitamin C Biscuit’ sounded funny, so… Oddly enough, I was searching last night, because I thought it would be funny to have Vitamin C with the horse’s picture on it — and I guess they use Seabiscuit to promote oranges, so there actually was a poster of Seabiscuit with oranges … it was a little strange.”

Ganyard:
“We have some sort of serious ones; we have a bunch of purple cupcakes and that’s ‘The Color Purple’ one, we have — to ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,’ that’s really an interesting, well done one where these large meatballs look like they’re falling on this town. So it’s kind of humorous. And then there’s a sandwich for ‘Slaughterhouse Five.’ We have a variety of things out there.

“We have five different areas that we’re judging, all the way up to best of show. One for the punniest, one for the cutest, those types of categories.”

Delaney Patterson, UW-Green Bay student:
“I think a lot of people are coming up with really creative ideas, and it’s fun to see the puns on really popular books. So I just I like the concept — because I’m a reader, to see these plays on words is really cool.”

Rogers:
“This is our 40th anniversary party — so what better way to celebrate than a bunch of cakes.”