Great Pumpkin Contest Winners Named

By the contest deadline of 6:00 p.m. on October 27, the Harlem Public Library had nine entries for their Great Pumpkin Contest. Once the judges had assessed the contestants' creativity, three winners were declared on Friday, October 29: Jalen Gray, Jayda Whiteclay, and Denise Stanley.

Area resident readers were invited to decorate a pumpkin as a favorite book character, using any craft materials of the creator's choice. In the first category for ages 1-8, Jalen Gray took top honors with his pumpkin to capture the main character from Marcus Pfister's classic picture book The Rainbow Fish. The universal message at the heart of this simple story about a beautiful fish is how he learns to make friends by sharing his most prized possessions.

Jayda Whiteclay, a contestant in the ages 9-14 category, captured the judges' attention with her recreation of the story's protagonist, Piggie. Through Piggie and Gerald in Mo Willems' book I Love My New Toy! readers learn lessons on friendship, accidents, feelings, and sharing.

Finally, Denise Stanley received the winning nod in the fifteen and older age group with her Coraline stylized pumpkin. Published in 2002, the novella Coraline is a dark fantasy by Neil Gaiman that tells the story of Coraline Jones, who finds a doorway to a parallel, sinister otherworld inside her new home. To secure her family's safety, she must battle the evil "Other Mother" who lives there. In the process, Coraline learns that things are not always better elsewhere. She has to go on an adventure in an alternate world not only to prove she is brave but to learn the importance of being grateful for what she has and appreciating her family.

In addition to the pumpkins, one artist decorated a small watermelon to celebrate the CoComelon series of books. These are based on the hit nursery rhyme show CoComelon. For those who may be unfamiliar with CoComelon, it is a series of nursery rhymes that are loosely educational with the intention of teaching children various values. The books feature brightly animated, recurring computer generated characters who appear in the nursery rhymes. Anyone who has ever browsed through the children's content on YouTube has definitely come across the series. The CoComelon tagline is 'Be happy and smart.'

About the entries, the two anonymous Harlem community members who judged the creations commented that they had fun assessing the "cool entries" on which everyone did a "good job."