Jedi, Princesses, Superheroes & Colonel Mustard: Halloween at Mentor Public Library

We take Halloween seriously at Mentor Public Library.

We believe that, at least once a year, a grown person should be able to dress like their favorite Clue character.

We believe that an awesome child who wears an equally awesome costume deserves to be rewarded with candy (if it's OK with their parents or guardian.)

We also believe in sharing some of the photos we took of awesome kids in their costumes for you to enjoy. (Once again, we get parental approval first.)

So without further prologue, we present Halloween 2013 at Mentor Library.

Stop me if you've heard this one. A princess, a jedi and Batman walk into a library...

Rowan makes for an adorable ladybug.

Sam, I mean Batman, checks for candy.

It's a Lord of the Rings family! Jedidiah as Frodo, Josie as Arwen, Sadie as a fairy and Adelaide as Lady Galadriel.

What does the bear say? You'll have to ask Ava Marie.

Madeline emulates Tinkerbell.

A Power Ranger and Spider-Man? Now that's a super team-up!

Brayson tests his heat vision. Or his x-ray vision. Or maybe it's just his superhero stare down. Either way, we don't want to make this Kryptonian angry.

And in case you're wondering what our reference staff dressed as...

Ms. Peacock, Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet, Mrs.White and Mr. Green.

For more Halloween fun, check out our Facebook page or this video of our annual zombie walk.

Anime Club Hosting Costume Contest this Saturday

Perhaps I'm biased, but I think the Anime Club at Mentor Public Library is pretty incredible.

They do fun stuff (like make candy sushi) and they often do it while in costume as their favorite anime characters.

We've seen cosplay from Naruto, Vocaloid, Black Butler and more pop up at Anime Club, so we thought it would be fun to have a costume contest.

The contest will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at our Main Branch. All teens are welcome.

And you're not limited to anime either. You can dress as your favorite video game or comic book character too. (It's not a bad excuse to bring out your Halloween costume early.)

Just be awesome and be who you want to be.

To get ready for the contest, some of us at the library broke out our finest Portal costumes, Wonder Woman lassos and Totoro hoodies for a video.

We hope you enjoy it.

Visit the Mentor Public Library website for more info on the Anime Club costume contest.

Everything's More Awesome In Costume

If comic conventions have taught us anything, then it is this: Everything is more awesome while wearing a costume.

Don't believe me? Go to Zoup dressed as Batman or pick up your dry cleaning while wearing zombie makeup. (But be careful not to get the makeup on your freshly cleaned clothes.)

This lesson was reinforced at the first meeting of the Mentor Public Library's anime club last Saturday.

The teens painted kokeshi (which is a kind of Japanese doll), ate pizza and watched the first episode of Letter Bee.

All of that would have been cool enough by itself, but some of the teens made it even better by showing up in costume. Here's a shot of Meagan McLaughlin and Katie Hunziker dressed as Sebastian Michaelis from the anime series Black Butler and Rin Kagamine from Vocaloid, respectively.

The next meeting of the Anime Club will be 2 p.m. on June 22 at the Mentor Public Library’s main branch.

All teens are invited. The club will watch Hetalia: Axis Powers and have a Ramen-eating contest.

Come by. Wear a costume. You probably won't be the only one.

By the way, here are a pair of kokeshi, in case you were wondering what they looked like. This duo were painted to look like Naruto and Gaara from Naruto.

For more information on events and programs for kids, teens and adults, visit the Mentor Public Library web site at www.mentorpl.org.