On Wednesday the Portland Public Library is hosting a fundraising event the kids and I haven’t missed in several years – the Edible Book Festival. This is an annual event held in April at libraries around the world. My family loves this celebration of books because it’s a great creative, fun, play on words kinda day that also helps raise money for the library. The guidelines for making an edible book are pretty simple. Make a ‘book’ from edible ingredients (it doesn’t have to taste good but it has to be edible). Over the past couple of years, the Portland Library’s festival entries have been a wonderful mix of puns, renditions of book covers and some impressive pieces of artwork. This was one of the kids’ favorites from last year… “Harry Potter and the Deathly Mallows See more photos from last year’s festival Two years ago my kids’ edible books were based on picture books. Last year they ventured more to cake decorating with Rainbow Magic and Jewel Kingdom chapter books. The girls came up with their entries for this year’s festival and I’m under specific orders not to share their ideas on my blog until after the event. But you don’t have to make an edible book to enjoy the event though; browsing is free. If you want to feast on the books and cast your vote for the best ‘book,’ it will cost you $5. Buying a ticket is a great way to support the library’s annual book fund and be dazzled by the creativity of book lovers in Maine. I should qualify my recommendation of this event however with the fact that although children are welcome to make an entry and/or attend the event, it is not child-oriented (i.e., if you’ve got a kid who likes to touch everything and lick frosting, you might want to skip this event until they’re older because that is definitely NOT encouraged or considered cute). My kids have always felt welcomed but I just wanted to offer a heads-up to parents thinking about attending so they know what to expect. Here are the event details if you’re interested: Wednesday, April 2, 200810:30 – 11:30 a.m. – Drop off your Edible book at the library (get your entry form here)11:30-12:30 – Browsing and voting 12:30 p.m. – Prizes are announced 1:00-2:00 p.m. – ‘Eat your words’ (time to dig in and eat the creations!) Check out the International Edible Book Festival website to see photos from other festivals.