LEGO creativity at the Henry Waldinger library

All month long, a battle will be raging at the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library, where 10-year-old Sebastian Persaud’s LEGO intruders from a dark realm, which he described as the void, will try to colonize his friend Sanjeev Singh’s island — equipped with an army and catapults for defense.

To try and stop the colonizers, Sebastian’s brother, Khristian, said he built a protector who is equipped with a sword, a tail to fly, a flower that shoots acid and laser eyes. If the void’s colonizers make it past the protector, the crew of a space ship built by Sanjeev could board the colonizers’ ship to repel the invaders as a last-ditch effort. But if they fail, the void’s invaders could get control of the island.

The epic battle, depicted entirely with LEGOs, will be on display at the library along with other children’s creations for its 22nd Annual Children’s LEGO Exhibit.

“They kind of made pieces that go together,” said Mamie Eng, the library director, describing how the children collaborated on their projects for the exhibit.

Other Valley Stream students also created their own works for the annual display, which will open on Jan. 6. Christopher Le, 7, for example, built his own battlescape with one headless LEGO man wielding a bazooka who, he said, “got his head chopped off.”

Not all of the LEGO sculptures are violent, however. Le’s older sister, Angela, decided to make a playhouse inspired by her first play date. She said that she took only a few minutes to create the playhouse, and that it features a slide that never ends.

“This is like very cool because when you come down here, it brings you up again,” said Angela, who is 8 years old, as she described her concept for the slide.

The Gajraj siblings also created more peaceful sculptures. Asha, 11, the eldest sibling, built her own island; Amberley, who is 7, built a spinning windmill; and Arvind, 9, made a Macy’s After Christmas Sale display that opens like a dollhouse to reveal its interior. “It just sounded fun to make,” he said.

Their sculptures only took a few days to make, but the siblings have been participating in the LEGO exhibit since Asha was in kindergarten. “We love LEGOs and we figured this was a good way to express what we build,” she said.

First-graders through seventh-graders participated in this year’s LEGO exhibit. They will each receive a Certificate of Achievement or a LEGO-related item to hang in their rooms when the exhibit closes in February.