The University Libraries recently celebrated Banned Books Week by hosting its popular Edible Books Festival on Sept. 24. The event celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. Each fall semester the Libraries Outreach Committee, faculty and staff host the Edible Banned Books Festival to show their shared support of the freedom to read. Banned Books Week helps draw local and national attention to the harms of censorship.
At the Edible Books Festival, which took place inside the Mathewson IGT-Knowledge Center’s Breezeway, participants and passers-by were presented with opportunities to learn about banned and challenged books, enjoy a sweet treat from the Libraries and view and vote for their favorite edible banned book creation. Each of the clever, food-related, edible banned book-themed entries included in the Festival were created by Libraries faculty and/or staff. You can see images from this year’s Festival by .
Today, the Libraries wants to draw attention to one of this year’s Festival entries. The "Captain Underpants" cookie.
Did you know the "Captain Underpants" books are among the American Library Association's list of the top 100 most banned and challenged books from the past decade, due to complaints from parents about violent imagery?
“Last year, I worked the table for the Edible Banned Book Fair,” Cheyenne Kelly, coordinator for E-Resources and Discovery said. “'Captain Underpants' was on the poster of banned books on display at the event, and students kept commenting on how surprised they were to see it on the list. The main reason I could find was I wanted to bring attention to the silliness of banning books like 'Captain Underpants' - the age-appropriate subversiveness of potty humor is what gets kids interested in reading in the first place!”
In recognition of Captain Underpants being banned or on the banned books list, Cheyenne wanted to create an edible Captain Underpants cookie to help celebrate Banned Books and enter her creation into the Festival. She said she first started reading Captain underpants in middle school. The humor in the books is what caught her imagination! In honor of this, Cheyenne decided to use her Libraries-learned skills to make her own 3D-printed Captain Underpants cookie cutter. Read more about how she used knowledge learned during her time as a student worker within the DeLaMare Science and Engineering Library’s Makerspace to pull off one of the cutest and most creative cookies seen at the Edible Banned Books Festival!
She said, “This event is one of my favorite events that the Library puts on every year. I truly believe in freedom of information (even if I don't agree with the information), which led me to want to work for the Libraries in the first place. People have the right to consume information and apply their own judgement to it, regardless of their age or background.
“Book bans cause so much harm to the schools and libraries that have to deal with them, not only in reducing the information available but also in legal fees that could be used to provide resources instead. This is especially harmful for public libraries where the community relies on the free services.”
Making the Captain Underpants cookie
By Cheyenne Kelly
Spoiler: I am currently a Coordinator for . If you are using our online resources and submit a ticket for a problem you found, I'm part of the team on the other end!
Cheyenne Kelly, Coordinator, Library Discovery & E-ResourcesI was blessed to have the opportunity to come back to school in 2021 for a second bachelor's degree (Information Systems), and I was able to sneak in as a student worker at the despite being a non-traditional university student. I loved working there and learned so much. The Makerspace requires a two-week intensive training to learn all the machines there, but it takes more time to truly learn the quirks and tricks to using the machines and their software.
The Makerspace was my first real exposure to 3D printing. Despite being fiddly, these machines were my favorite to watch and listen to while they were running. Over time, I learned various ways to troubleshoot the machines and print settings to get a quality print. I ended up focusing on mastering Adobe Illustrator for 2D vector images and Autodesk Tinkercad for creating 3D items. Adobe Illustrator is a software provided by the University, while is a free 3D modelling program that is geared towards public schoolers, making it a perfect introduction to creating 3D objects for someone completely new like me! Although I have started learning other 3D modelling software for more complicated projects, I still use Tinkercad for simple or quick projects.
As time went on, I promised myself I would get my own 3D printer when I got a full-time job. In 2023, I found the posting for my current position and successfully got hired! As soon as I got my first paycheck, I purchased my own 3D printer (an Ender 3 S1 Pro). I have experimented with materials and techniques that our machines in the Makerspace didn’t have available during my time there, such as PETG and different slicing software for running the print itself.
Fast forward to Fall 2023! Here is how I made our hero:
- I used Illustrator to trace an image of Captain Underpants, converting him into a black and white vector image. I also used Illustrator to create offset lines of my image. These offset lines were used to create a back for the image stamp and the cutter itself.
- I then exported all of my parts as individual SVG files, which allowed me to import the 2D lines into Tinkercad.
- In Tinkercad, the import process automatically converts the image into a 3D block, so all I had to do was adjust the heights of each part and merge the pieces together to create my final 3D parts. I then exported these files and printed them out in PETG, which is considered a food-safe plastic.
- I then found "the best sugar cookie recipe" on Pinterest, and made my cookies! I would first use the outline cutter to cut the cookie, then used the image stamp to mark the cookies with our hero.
- Once I had completed my project, so others can make their own!
The Libraries were instrumental in getting me to where I am today! Not only did I learn the technical skills I needed for this project, but I also refined and improved my troubleshooting skills that I still use in my work with E-Resources.
