Agnes Eddyblouin, 5, holds her “nebula in a jar” up to a black light to watch it glow during Skidompha Library’s “A Wrinkle in Time” event Saturday, March 17. (Jessica Picard photo)
To celebrate the release of the film adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time,” Skidompha Library in downtown Damariscotta invited families to a Wrinkle in Time Extravaganza on Saturday, March 17.
“We wanted to celebrate the new movie,” Skidompha Library Director of Development and Communications Torie DeLisle said. “We celebrate literature and stories (at the library).”
The movie, which opened March 9, is based on the 1962 science fiction-fantasy novel of the same name. It follows 13-year-old Meg Murry on her quest through space and time to find her missing father.
Many of the attendees were fans of the story and were excited to see the new film.
“We listened to it … we are on (the sequel) ‘A Wind in the Door,’” Lorelei Young, 9, said.
The event featured science, technology, and art activities for children to participate in and learn from.
One activity was building “tesseracts,” or five-dimensional objects, out of marshmallows and toothpicks.
Glowing “nebulas in a jar” were made with glow sticks, water, cotton balls, and glitter with the assistance of Mark Ferrero, Skidompha’s children’s librarian.
Blaise Eddyblouin, 8, paints with flourescent paint under black light in the intergalactic room during Skidompha Library’s “A Wrinkle in Time” event Saturday, March 17. (Jessica Picard photo)
Ashley Piercy, whose 5-year-old son, Sawyer, was making a nebula, said she brought her two children to the library to look for St. Patrick’s Day-themed books. “This was a nice surprise,” she said.
Other scientific experiments included making hovercrafts out of CDs and balloons, witnessing how condensation can make a “cloud in a jar,” and learning about surface tension by trying to fit as much water as possible on the surface of a penny.
DeLisle read tarot cards as the “Happy Medium,” a fortune-teller that the book’s main characters encounter during their travels through time and space.
Artist Erica Qualey manned a station for body marbling, a painting technique in which paint is floated on water, swirled into the desired pattern, and transferred to a person’s skin.
Sawyer Piercy, 5, makes a “nebula in a jar” by mixing glitter, glowsticks, and water during Skidompha Library’s “A Wrinkle in Time” event Saturday, March 17. (Jessica Picard photo)
The Charles Talbot Porter room was transformed by black lights into an intergalactic experience, where children could paint with glowing fluorescent colors and show off their “nebula in a jar” while planets and galaxies were projected on a screen.
The event plan included shuttling students ages 8-14 to see the 1 p.m. showing of the movie, but most attendees were already planning on seeing the movie with their families later that afternoon, so the trip was canceled, DeLisle said.
However, the library did show the film “Journey to the Edge of the Universe.”
October Brown, 7, gets her fortune read by Skidompha Library Director of Development and Communications Torie DeLisle during the library’s “A Wrinkle in Time” event Saturday, March 17. (Jessica Picard photo)
Visitors were also invited to participate in a downtown scavenger hunt. They were given a series of clues that would lead them to certain businesses, where they would need to answer a question.
One of the clues, which ultimately led to S. Fernald’s Country Store, read “When the story begins, Meg finds her brother and her mother snacking in the kitchen, late on a stormy night. What meat is in her mother’s favorite sandwich? This sandwich shop with a wall of names may have the answers in store for you!”
“We had about a dozen people complete the scavenger hunt,” DeLisle said. The prize for completing the mission was a coupon for a free book at the Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop.
Attendees could also put their names in a drawing for free copies of “A Wrinkle in Time.”
“I thought the turnout was great. I was very pleased … I would say 50-plus kids came through,” DeLisle said.
