Mission 1: Make a Golem

Mission 1 is now closed.

For this first mission, make your own golem! (Need inspiration? Check out Mission 1 Entries.)

You could win a $50 Powell's gift card and be entered to win an Apple iPad Air 2!

The Mission

Share your interpretation of what the golem in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay looks like… or get really creative and make one that's entirely your own.

Use whatever medium strikes your fancy:

  • drawing
  • painting
  • clay
  • sculpture
  • textiles
  • computer graphics
  • or something else entirely!

Mission 1 Prize

One submission from Mission 1 will be chosen at random to win a $50 Powell's gift card, courtesy of BiblioCommons.

Grand Prize

There will be six missions over the course of the reading program.

At the end of the reading program, one submission will be chosen at random from across all six missions to win an Apple iPad Air 2, courtesy of BiblioCommons.

Submission Guidelines

Submit your golem by:

We may share your submission on our website and social media too!

Submission Rules

  • You must be a registered Chicago Public Library patron.
  • You must be 13 years or older to enter.
  • Only submissions posted between midnight Monday, February 2 and 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 1 will be entered for a chance to win the Mission 1 prize.
  • By using the #OBOCMission1 hashtag or submitting to the OBOC Facebook page, you are granting the Chicago Public Library permission to share your submission on the CPL website or on CPL social media accounts.

Background

"It was never just a question of escape. It was also a question of transformation."—Sam Clay

The atmosphere of Prague as described in Part 1 of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is full of worry and, after an initial foiled escape, Josef Kavalier assists his former mentor Kornblum in finding and then removing an ancient golem from Prague in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the German authorities and in order to fulfill his parents’ wishes for him to leave the city. While a golem in its most basic sense is a clay figure brought to life by magic, Chabon’s golem is based on the folk tale of the Golem of Prague, in which a 16th century rabbi crafted the golem in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution. This golem is a giant automaton, hidden in a Prague apartment house. The golem—and Kavalier—must be transformed and hidden in order to help both escape from Prague.

Escape, transformation and loss feature heavily in the first section of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, “The Escape Artist.” As the reader first meets Sammy Klayman and Josef Kavalier, we learn that both young men are filled with sadness and disappointment from their unfulfilled dreams, and, for Josef, with the strain of leaving Prague and worry for his family.

You can learn more about the Golem of Prague in David Wisniewski’s Golem, an illustrated version of the folktale.

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