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!