How To Create A Children’s Book Character Costume (Part 2)

And here’s the next set of costume ideas for being a children’s book character for Halloween or party. For some odd reason, I had a hard time coming up with girl characters, but there are a few in the bunch. (See Part 1 here.)

Sal from Blueberries For Sal costume

Robert McCloskey created little Sal in 1948. This outfit would be very simple and a dream to wear, but may not be immediately recognizable to just anyone. It definitely hearkens the days of simplicity and summer.

Imogene from Imogene’s Antlers costume

This is such a fun and quirky story and I think mimicking this character would be a hoot. David Small created Imogene in 1985. I don’t have any brilliant ideas for how to create the antlers, but you could just buy a small headband set that they usually have around for Christmas or perhaps making some paper mache ones would be possible…. I wouldn’t recommend the doughnuts on the antlers, but it would be funny! It was always my favorite part of the book as a kid.

Ira from Ira Sleeps Over costume

This book was in a storybook that I read as a kid, actually one of the first books I can remember reading to myself, and I absolutely adored it. This is my favorite costume of the whole bunch. And so simple to create and wear. Ira was created in 1972 by the marvelous Bernard Waber. I have to admit that I’ve never been quite sure if Ira is a boy or a girl. I’ll leave it up to you dear reader. Oh, and it isn’t required for your bear to be named “Tah Tah.”

Madeline costume

This costume is a little difficult for me to recommend. Mostly because Madeline is incredibly overdone, and oddly, done wrong. Well at least I think so. Most people who do a Madeline costume have a blue dress, which is fine, but you must realize that you are creating the movie version of Madeline. I’m an originalist and the real Madeline from Ludwig Bemelmans in 1939 has a yellow dress. She is a classic though, either way.

Eloise costume

You must be a real character to don Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight’s Eloise from 1955. She has become more iconic since a movie version, which I haven’t seen, but the book is quite hilarious. Eloise could be described as the inner child of the fabulous Kay Thompson and the drawn character by Hilary Knight fits her to a T. Be sure to check out “Eloisiana” for appropriate in-character sayings and actions!

Jillian from Ribbon Rescue costume

Another not-so-well-known character is Robert Munsch’s Jillian. A dress like this would be so fun to recreate. I know some cute girls who did and wore them to a fair! Check out Robert Munsch’s website to find out the background to the Ribbon Rescue story.

Well, those are my ideas. Some would be easier than others. And some of the popular characters I’m sure you can find costume kits at a store for them. Depends on what you want and how DIY you are feeling!

We don’t really do Halloween at our house, granted my daughter is less than a year old, but I would love to hear what children’s book costumes you come up with! Also, one of my favorite bloggers has done a recent series of homemade Halloween costumes that I think are just darling, especially The Red Balloon costume (that’s a book too, although made from the movie, but I’ll count it!).

Happy costuming!