The front entrance of Booth Library on Monday was filled with everything from gourds and Jell-O to French fries and pie.

The foods were all part of the Edible Book Festival, which kicked off National Library Week.  

The Edible Book Festival came to Eastern last year after the coordinator Todd Bruns went to a similar event at University of Wisconsin. 

Bruns said he wanted to bring the festival to Eastern because he has not seen anything here like it before.

There were two more entrants than last year, one of which was a student. 

Bruns said he hopes more students will participate in the upcoming years.  

There were two “The Hunger Games” entries this year.  

“When an event is annual, the new entries makes it fresh,” Bruns said.

“The Life of Pie,” created by Billy Hung, a biological sciences professor, said thinking of something to make was easy. 

“It’s part of the fun, seeing where people take the concept,” Hung said.

Hung said the only thing he can bake is pie, so all he had to do was find a book.  

Other edible artworks included “Where’s My Cow?” where an unwrapped fast food burger was missing its meat with a question mark on the bun; “I Made a Chocolate Pie Just for You” based off “The Help” was a chocolate pie that had something that looked like human excrement on top of it; and “A Be-Dazzling Display of Dogs” with hot dogs covered in fake jewels.

Awards were given out for People’s Choice, Dean’s Choice, Best Student Entry, Best Entry from a Family and Best Entry Based on a Children’s Book. The festival also ran a slideshow from other edible artworks from around the world.

The winner of the Dean’s Choice Award went to “Yertle the Turtle” created by Jacqui Worden, a retired Eastern employee, and family member Dustin Brewer.  The runner-up was “20,000 Leaks Under the Sea.”  

“Yertle the Turtle” consisted of turtles made of homemade bread and hot dogs, Jell-O, a sweet potato and onion grass to recreate the cover of the famous Dr. Seuss book.

“The Gourd of the Rings” created by David Miller, a faculty member at Information Technology Services, won the People’s Choice Award.

Abriana Iwanski, a junior English major, said her favorite edible artwork was “Gourd of the Rings.” 

“It was really done well with incorporating all the foods,” Iwanski said.

Deborah Fennema, the senior library specialist, said she enjoyed the word play with “The Gourd of the Rings.”

Bruns said he could not believe how the edible artworks were made. 

“I’m impressed and amazed at the amount of work people put into it,” Bruns said. “It blows my mind.”

 Amanda Wilkinson can be reached at 581-2812 or akwilkinson@eiu.edu.