At The lIbrary: It It Time To Celebrate Animal Crackers

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Did you know that April 18^th is dedicated to celebrating National Animal Cracker Day? These tasty little treats are such a quintessential childhood snack for so many of us; in fact, these crackers span generations because they’ve been around for so many years.

The crackers that we know today got their start in the mid-1800s in England. By the late-1800s, these sweet little biscuits had made their way across the ocean and were stampeding into homes in the United States. When this menagerie first arrived in the U.S. they were baked by independent bakers and demand was high. In 1871 these animal-shaped biscuits were being produced by Stauffer’s Biscuit Company, using their own special recipe that resulted in a sweet, crispy, thin biscuit.

Stauffer’s had a good run being the sole commercial company producing animal crackers until 1902 when the National Biscuit Company, Nabisco, presented their own animal crackers which arrived on the market in small boxes designed to look like P.T. Barnum circus train cars. These iconic boxes also came with a string that allowed them to double as Christmas tree ornaments; they were also often used by children as toys or as containers for other little toys and treasures.

Nabisco quickly rose to the top of the market, but despite their initial success, they never managed to quite topple Stauffer’s biscuits. Today both crackers are still produced and there remains a great debate about which brand’s recipe is better. Through the decades, recipes have stayed the same, but packaging hasn’t; in 2018, Nabisco retired the circus car in favor of letting their animal crackers roam free on a savannah. 

If, like me, you’re suddenly not sure which animal crackers you prefer, then April 18^th is the perfect day to by a box of both, gather some friends together, and make an event of it!

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New and Coming Soon:

• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (Non-Fiction; Book)
• But Everyone Feels This Way: How an Autism Diagnosis Saved My Life by Paige Layle (Non-Fiction; Book, eAudiobook)
• The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang (Fiction; Book)
• Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School by Tiffany Jewell (YA Non-Fiction; Book)
• The Folly by Gemma Amor (Fiction; Book, eAudiobook)
• Good Half Gone by Tarryn Fisher (Fiction; Book, Large Print, eBook, eAudiobook)
• How to Solve Your Own Murder: A Novel by Kristen Perrin (Fiction; Book, eBook)
• Indulge: Delicious and Decadent Dishes to Enjoy and Share by Valerie Bertinelli (Non-Fiction; Book)
• James: A Novel by Percival Everett (Fiction; Book, eBook)
• Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking by Mingoo Kang; with Joshua David Stein and Nadia Cho (Non-Fiction; Book)
• Lone Wolf: Orphan X, Book 9 by Gregg Hurwitz (Fiction; Book, Large Print)
• The Mars House: A Novel by Natasha Pulley (Fiction; Book)
• The Premonition: A Novel by Banana Yoshimoto; translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda (Fiction; Book)
• The Sweet Blue Distance by Sara Donati (Fiction; Book)
• You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace (Fiction; Book)