The Davenport Public Library combines Zombie Barbies with horror books for Valentine’s Day, in a free Zoom event on Saturday, February 13.
Teens and adults are invited to join Amber Carlson, youth services and programming librarian, and hosts of the Stephen King podcast Derry Public Radio to make Zombie Barbies together and talk about their favorite horror stories starting at 2 p.m.
Carlson asked podcast co-host Josh Kahn for horror recommendations for teens around Halloween, but this is their first program with the podcast.
“It was such a great opportunity when Miss Amber e-mailed us about it. It was like, ‘Man, why hadn’t we thought of working with a local library before? It was like such a perfect match of a book club and a library.”
“We hear something cool and we think we can make it work, we love it. Then we get to promote something book-related, that’s local, all that fun stuff.”
Carlson didn’t want to wait to hold the Zoom event until next October.
“The teens have wanted to do Zombie Barbies for a while, but I could never figure out how to do an in-person program well, just because the time it would need for paint to dry and different layers. Actually when I started thinking about a take-home, it’s kind of perfect, because if they don’t finish it during the event, it’s not that big a deal. Teens always love to do kind of horror stuff on Valentine’s Day anyway, so it seemed like a good fit.”
The library has already sent out all available Barbie kits for free, but people can buy their own materials and attend the event for free, which includes podcast co-host C.M. Alexander.
“Josh and C.M. are going to talk about some cool horror, zombie things. I’m a library, so even though it’s a craft program, I like to promote books and stuff at the same time. We’ll just go through step by step; they’ll have questions and we just kind of make it together. I’m really excited that Josh and C.M. will be there, so it’s not just me talking by myself the whole time.”
One attendee is participating from New Jersey.
Kahn says they’re happy to share their love of horror.
“I have a weak spot for zombie movies. That’s my favorite genre, is zombie movies. And C.M. is a big zombie fan. Her and her husband actually introduced me to Italian horror and Italian zombie horror is amazing. So, when all this came up, it was like getting a chance to – one, do something locally with Davenport Public Library. We had a great time, not doing the last thing, we didn’t get to interact. So this is a great opportunity to do something else.”
“We get to craft and make zombie Barbies and talk about zombie movies. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.”
A bonus for Carlson is, she’s not a horror fan, but admires Stephen King.
“I have a lot of teens who really love horror and I feel bad, because I have nothing to offer them. So that’s one of the reasons I first reached out to them, ‘cause I don’t have that. I can a little bit – I have like three that I’ve read and I recommend those over and over again.”
As a librarian, she loves King’s nonfiction book, “On Writing.”
Kahn says while there are undead elements in “Pet Sematary,” King writes more about ghosts than zombies. You don’t think romance and horror would go together, but they do.
“Because they both are geared toward making you feel something. So combining those two things – a great example, something I just recently found out about, ‘Return of the Living Dead Part 3,’ is essentially ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but zombies.” “That story is about passion, it’s about romance, and you take one of the most logical steps in any romance story is taking violence into it, because you heighten people’s emotions so high that violence usually happens. It’s great when you add zombies in there because death isn’t the end of the story then.”
Carlson also said Valentine’s and horror are connected since the holiday also is about broken hearts.
You can register for Saturday at davenportlibrary.com, and find out more about Derry Public Radio at https://constantreaders.org/dpr.
