Ezri Carroll’s grandfather, Richard “Rocky” Carroll, knew something good was happening inside McDermoth Elementary School’s library, but he didn’t know what exactly.

And then the retired Aberdeen Bobcat walked in on Friday as Ezri and Jenny Floch, the school’s librarian, unveiled the art-filled walls brimming with multi generations of familiar book characters — such as classic Winnie the Pooh, Dr. Seuss, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Goosebumps, Harry Potter, the Pigeon Series, and many more.

“It’s beautiful,” said Rocky, the proud grandfather who touted Ezri’s other successes before Friday’s unveiling. She’s previously won “best in show” at Shorebird Art Festival several years ago for a picture she drew at St. Mary School.

Ezri’s mom, Cheyenna Carroll, said she thought the finished product inside the library was “great.” The display, which can be seen throughout the library, was Ezri’s Aberdeen High School senior project.

“It’s a ton of work, she worked really, hard,” Carroll said. “They started talking about it last year and then waited until she was done with the school year so it could be her school project. She probably would have done it anyway, because she did help my mom when they did that part and was familiar with the idea. But they had a lot of fun. I know Jenny had a lot of ideas that they wanted included, but I think they added some more. When they had blank spots, they added some extra characters and made sure to fill it in. They really filled the space, which was great.”

While Carroll doesn’t know exactly how they did it, she said Ezri’s “really good with reference.”

“If you give her something to copy or react to … it’s incredibly detailed and very much how the illustrations look in the books,” Carroll said.

Carroll hit it on the head because the characters are not all made the same, nor are they just Ezri’s impression of each character’s look. It looks like they were pulled out of their respective books, which makes it all even better.

While Ezri’s family members who attended the unveiling were impressed by the artwork, they had seen other public artwork from Ezri and her grandmother, Jolie.

In 2014, a third-grade Ezri and Jolie were responsible for the artwork on the north-facing wall at the library’s entrance, where characters such as Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Big Friendly Giant stood tall.

“I remember her doing this,” Rocky said about that single wall. “When she was little she was always reading books with color wheels and palettes.”

Words from the artist

“The physical labor was a lot,” Ezri said. “The physical labor was heavy because there is a lot to work around, like most of these bookshelves don’t move so for that whole wall I had to bend my back to paint things, literally. But the payoff was great, and it was great to see that mural again that my grandmother and I had done 10 years ago, and add onto it.”

Ezri loved working on the book covers themselves, she said they were “fun,” but there were two other favorite elements on which the young artist worked.

“I like working on Christopher Robin over there and Winnie the Pooh,” Ezri said. “And for my third (favorite), I’d probably say Geronimo Stilton. He was a fun one to put up there.”

“I’d say with projects like this, what’s really difficult is trusting the process,” Ezri said. “You are literally face-to-face with the wall and when you’re up there and you’re doing it, it looks awful. I don’t feel it looks very good. With that one I had to step out a lot and I had to look at the full image to get the reassurance that it was going to come out OK.”

“When it came to actually painting them, we had to water down acrylic so we could get that fine color wash and it was really tricky getting that on the wall (where it didn’t) drip on anything,” Ezri said. “So you probably wouldn’t notice, but, if you look really close you can see the streaky kind of strokes that add to the book feel of the work. The only one we didn’t do that with was Clifford (the Big Red Dog) because we had to keep him saturated. Otherwise he’d look pink and he’s not pink, he’s red.”

But Ezri wanted to keep the watercolor look to the art.

“They would look streaky but that’s how you would find them in most books,” Ezri said. “The coloring would look streaky and watercolor looking. I feel they look more authentic.”

Target audience approval

Sixteen classes of children — every single one at McDermoth — toured the library. It was a challenge. Rocky said “it’s like wrangling cats.” Floch agreed. In fact she laughed in a lighthearted way about it. But it was all worth it. The young students, who were well-behaved, enjoyed themselves as they got to gawk at all of the characters, especially a few of their favorites, like Creepy Carrots!, Pete the Cat, and others.

“You guys did a really good job,” one of the students said from a group.

Not only will Shelby Kincaid, a third-grader at McDermoth, be able to enjoy the vivid artwork for the next couple years as a student, she was also part of the 10-student team who helped Ezri. Shelby was at the unveiling with her mom, Chrissie. They both spoke about the art.

“My daughter Shelby is all excited from doing this project,” Chrissie said. “It looks nice. Her friend’s on the team too so she’s had fun with this.”

Shelby showed off some last-minute organizing she did in the shelves underneath the Dr. Seuss wall. Nearby, she proudly pointed out “Bob the Bulldog,” who is the school’s mascot.

“I’m super proud,” Carroll said. “It’s a lot of work and it’s really fun to see something that will be here for many years. She was able to find a senior project that will stick around and the people will see it and enjoy it for a long time. The first section’s been here for 10 years already and they’re not painting over it, they’re adding to it. So, it’ll be here for a long time for lots of kids to enjoy and that’s really exciting. I’m proud of all the work she put into it, and getting her senior project done before she even technically started school her senior year. That’s a huge accomplishment too. I know a lot of kids kind of struggle to figure out what they’re gonna do and she was able to find something that really showcased her talents, which was great.

Words from faculty

Terri Whalen, second-grade teacher, said she loves the artwork.

“It is exciting,” Whalen said. “The kids as you can see are very excited. When I walked in it was like making the books come alive.”

Whalen was so enthusiastic about seeing so many children engaged.

“It makes my heart happy,” Whalen said. “They’re excited, they want to check out books right away, and we have more students who want to read books that are reflective on the wall, which is awesome. Like The Phantom Tollbooth, some of our students might not have ever pulled it out, but now it’s up there and it’s a great read for our advanced readers.”

Floch spoke about the day

Floch is so proud of Ezri and the 10-student team from McDermoth. She got each of the teammates a gift and she also got a couple gifts for Ezri. She said those gifts were “a drop in the bucket,” compared to how much she appreciated their collective hard work.

“Today I knew would be kind of chaotic because we’ve had all the anticipation with the windows blacked out and not having (the students) get to see anything,” Floch said. “I knew when they came into today it would be chaos, but fun. And their teachers are here and there are enough adults hanging out.”

Floch said while there was a lot of anticipated excitement, the students would have an understanding of what to do. And in the end, Floch and the other faculty want the students to be excited about reading. That was a success.

Floch recalled the excitement many students showed, but here was one of the students who stuck out.

“We have a student, her name is Rosie,” Floch said. “The entirety of last year she checked out Pete the Cat books, for the entire school year. Now mind you, I have probably close to 10 of them so it wasn’t the same book for the entire year. But she didn’t really stray from that collection at all. So when we were putting this list (of characters) together, Rosie inspired it. We’ve got Pete the Cat over here. … He is there because of Rosie.”

Heather Trader, office coordinator for McDermoth Elementary School, shared a quick thought about the hard work inside the library.

“I’m super impressed with the paintings,” Trader said. “I think they will be inspiring for the kids and I think they will get them excited about reading.”

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World Jenny Floch, third from left, points out to McDermoth Elementary School students the artwork and how the library is laid out.

The artwork inside McDermoth Elementary School not only reaches the current generation of students with more contemporary books such as Creepy Carrots!, Pete the Cat, Elephant and Piggie, and more, it also shows off older literary characters, such as Winnie the Pooh, right, and Christopher Robin, left. (Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World)

Ezri Carroll’s Aberdeen High School senior project — artwork showing literary characters across multiple generations inside McDermoth Elementary School — lays out a simple message for her intended target audience: READ. The hope is the excitement the young students who toured the library with the new artwork keeps up for years to come. (Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World)