Lucy Hosack, left, plays with her friend Maddox last week in the Candy Castle at the Freeport Community Library. Mikayla Patel / The Forecaster
The girls liked Lollipop Land, the Peppermint Forest and Gumdrop Mountains, but agreed the Candy Castle was their favorite.
“My favorite part is winning,” said 4-year-old Gemma Jamison, because winning in the life-sized Candy Land game at the Freeport Community Library means being the first to reach the final square at the Candy Castle.
Librarians crafted the colorful castle out of cardboard for their version of the classic children’s board game that wove around the shelves in the children’s section last week. Inside the castle was lots of pretend candy and outside was a large gingerbread man taller than most of the game’s players.
Candy Land player Gemma Jamison, 4, and her dad outside Candy Castle. Mikayla Patel / The Forecaster
Four-year-old Lucy Hosack played with a friend in the Candy Castle.
“I like to eat candy, but you can’t eat too much. I like cotton candy,” she said, holding up a paper cotton candy on a stick and miming eating it.
Mary Lehmer, youth services librarian, said it’s been a joy watching the kids play on the Candy Land game. She and other librarians got creative, using old boxes, pieces of cardboard, coloring paper and fabric that they already had to construct the different areas of the board.
“It’s a good game for kids, because even if you’re little and counting is hard, you can still see the colors,” Lehmer said.
Kids were given spinners so they could take turns, going to the correlating color square of whichever color their spinner landed on, just like the real game.
“If you’re waiting your turn, you can stop and look at some books,” Lehmer said. “A nice side effect” of the game is that it takes kids through the shelves and encourages them to look around. Some even decided to sit and read in Lollipop Land or at the Gumdrop Mountains.
“The adults are also having a good time,” she said.
The library likes to find ways to engage with kids on days when the weather isn’t nice enough to play outdoors. It gets them up and moving, engaging their brains and playing with other kids, she said.
Life-sized Candy Land was just a weeklong event, but the library has more upcoming events for kids, including a Chocolate Puzzle Race happening March 2. To learn more about the Freeport Library’s events for kids, go to freeportlibrary.com/kids.
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