A small, yet fitting, celebration

Tonight (okay, technically, this morning) shortly after midnight, I finished the most recent round of revisions on WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU O.J., my first middle grade novel (Knopf, 2011) not to mention my most autobographical book so far.  It is the story of Zelda Fried, a ten year old girl who has moved to Vermont and wants a dog so badly she'll do anything... which is why she signs on for her eccentric grandfather's ridiculous plan to turn an old orange juice jug into a "practice dog."  

Upon hitting save, my elderly dog Lucy and I padded down to the kitchen to have a fitting celebration.  She had Vermont's finest - Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream - with pain medication in it and I had... orange juice.

Operation Teen Book Drop Video

Today at lunchtime, I took a stroll with my fellow First Bookers, Mitali Chakraborty and Matthew White, to drop a copy of Vintage Veronica on an unsuspecting teen (or two) as part of Operation Teen Book Drop Day.  We chose the Museum of Natural History, in part because it is such a cool place, in part because my friend Shari Werb works there and we had grand plans of a password-protected drop, and in part because it is two blocks from the First Book office. 

The fact that there was a DQ Blizzard truck parked across from it had nothing to do with it, I swear.

Unfortunately, being the Museum's Director of Education means NOTHING, and since Shari was not able to appear magically at the Info. Desk to open a can of whupp-- ahem, I mean, to educate the confused info. desk volunteers about Operation TBD -- we were unable to leave the book inside the building.  No matter.  We went out front and quickly located two 14 year olds who seemed like good candidates for the drop.  We hovered, then approached... and dropped Vintage Veronica, literally, into their eager hands.  Mission accomplished!

There's actually video of the hand-off, too.  However, since the girls were part of a school group, we were not able to get parental permission on the spot.  As soon as their teacher sends it along, I'll post the happy ending to this tale.

For more info. re: Operation Teen Book Drop go here.

No Butts About Reading Day, Part Two!

Here are a couple more pix from Chinn Park Regional Library's No Butts About Reading celebration (see previous entry):

The lovely kindergarten award winner! (Psst, your hat's on backward!  Tee hee.)

The six grade-level award winners, plus the Grand Prize winning entry (middle bookmark). 

I also took a picture of the grade prize winner in his hat, but it did not come out.  So, if his proud parents have a copy they can email to me (erica at ericaperl.com), I will post it here as well!

The winning bookmarks will be made into REAL ACTUAL BOOKMARKS by the library and will be available in a few weeks.  What a terrific way to honor kids for their efforts and create fun programming for a wide range of ages and the community at large.  Well done, Jane, Kay and Sandie, and everyone at the Chinn Park Library!

And, since technical difficulties prevented me from showing this at the event itself, here's our theme video to take us out:

No Butts About Reading Day!

I usually think of April 1st as "Chicken Butt! Day" (what better time to break out your inner jokester?), but this year the celebration lasted an extra ten days, culminating with the No Butts About Reading Celebration at the Chinn Park Regional Library in Woodbridge, VA.

The celebration was part of an annual Author Visit and Bookmark Contest program the library does every year (with the generous support of the Friends of the Library).  The theme is announced - and this year's theme was NO BUTTS ABOUT READING! - and kids design bookmarks to go with it, and the author whose work is central to the theme - that would be me this year! - is invited to come, present and sign books.

This year, the NO BUTTS ABOUT READING! theme generated a LOT of enthusiasm from young readers, writers and artists.  Three hundred and seventy five kids, grades K-5, entered by designing one-of-a-kind bookmarks and almost as many kids (plus their proud families and teachers) came to meet me and hear who had won the coveted prizes..... backward-facing (aka Chicken Butt!) chicken hats!!!

Here are some photos from the festivities:

Great Bookmark, right?

Super job!

Stand by the lady with the silly hat!

Now that's a seriously silly bookmark!

Excellent use of Vintage Veronica's cover as well as "No Butts About Reading"!

One of my personal favorite photos (and bookmarks)!

Hang on and I'll post a few more...

Read a book, win a hat!

In addition to being one of the most energetic, funny, charming and aptly named people I know, my dear pal Charisma Ridgley is... a champion knitter!  And she has made an offer that even I can't refuse - although I guess I'm disqualified, for reasons that will be obvious in a moment - she will HANDKNIT A HAT for each of the first ten people to read Vintage Veronica and post their reviews on Amazon, Good Reads or other reputable book-review-laden sites.

What's more, there's a Vintage Veronica book give-away going on at TheHidingSpot, so if you're double-lucky you could win the book AND win a hat.  And did I mention the hats are cute?  Check it out:

As you can see, Charisma's cute, too, but you can't win her.

So, here are the rules:

One, read Vintage Veronica.  Buy a copy (or several, if you feel inspired) or check it out of your local library!

Two, write a review of it.  Ideally one that is thought out and would make your English teacher happy.  Five stars totally optional but we won't try to stop you!

Three, post the review on a reputable site that traffics in book reviews and/or books (e.g. Amazon, Good Reads or your own blog, frankly).

Four, send me the link (erica at ericaperl.com) and I'll send Charisma your info. so she can send you your hat!

Five, do us a favor and live in the continental United States to make life and postage easier for Charisma, OK?

That's it!

Happy reading and writing... leave the knitting to Knitmaster C!

Peace.