This week we wanted to give you all a chance to get to know us a little better and we are starting with One Page at a Time co-host Jill Berrett Given! Jill is life-long bookwork, advocate for local libraries, has a masters degree in Library Science and is the mother of three children ages 6, 4 and 1.5. 

In this episode we talk about:

1. Costumes! Jill’s family are all big Halloween enthusiasts. So much so that they plan their theme (because of course they do group costumes) and costumes all year long! She chats about their process of choosing and making their costumes each year.

2. We dive right in and chat about some books with great costume options in them to get your creative juices flowing! Why books? They are such a great, visual sources of inspiration, that’s why!

3. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. Jill and Amanda even take a trip down memory lane and chat about a sewing a stuffed Hobbes for each of our first borns (pattern available here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Stuffed-Hobbes-with-pattern/)

4. Dragons love Tacos by Adam Rubin. Dress your whole hoard up as dragons, or, if you have one who isn’t feeling the dragon vibes, then they can be the taco!

5. We pause our book list to discuss how we feel about dressing up as princesses for a book character day. Hey, if a princess book gets your child excited about books, then we say go for it!

6. Eloise by Kay Thompson. While Jill may spend a year planning and sewing their costumes, if you are looking for something less...involved, this little girl is a great choice! Her black skirt, white blouse, knee socks and red bow can be pulled together with easily found pieces that can even be used again after the dress-up event! Bonus!

7. Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire. Jill admits that the amazing yellow dress worn by the little girl in this book is a costume she dreams about how she would draft and sew someday!

8. Mr. Panda series by Steve Antony. Jill was gracious enough to give everyone a sneak “peek” at her family’s costumes for this Halloween: black and white animals inspired by Mr. Panda and all his black-and-white animal pals!

Jill left us with a great idea of how to get started on putting these great ideas into practice this week. She suggested that if you don’t know where to start when putting together a book-inspired costume, because it is such a visual subject, start by just looking at the books we talked about today! Hopefully the wonderful illustrations and endearing stories in each and every one of them will spark an idea for you!

We had so much fun chatting with each other and hopefully letting everyone get to know us a little bit better! If you are curious about Jill’s epic Halloween sewing adventures, she has an Instagram account for her creative pursuits, which can be found at:

Instagram: @jillybugscreates

Additional books we mentioned:

Chikka Chikka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. 

Where’s Waldo by Martin Handford