by Matthew | Mar 4, 2014 | Bobbledy Kids, Make Your Own Book |
You Bobbledy Club members have heard the great news already, but for everyone else, we are delighted to officially announce that the winner of this year’s “make-your-own-books” contest is…
Laramie Horstman of St. Charles, Missouri
Last October, we sent out more than 300 copies of this book, The Snowmen Below, which wasn’t really a book at all.
We provided the first few sentences and a few illustration prompts and asked kids to supply the rest. Their own stories, their own illustrations, and even their own portrait and author’s bio at the end.
We received 43 books, to which more than 100 kids contributed (several classes of kids did collaborative books). We read them all, over and over again. There were so many wonderful stories, so many amazing drawings, so many great ideas. It was really, really hard to pick just one to publish, but in the end, we did.
Part of what we liked about the winning book, was that, in making her book her own, she even changed the title. So instead of snowmen, we have The Aliens Below.
Aliens with five eyeballs.
Aliens which, though extremely mysterious, are not so bad in the end .
Perhaps you will be inspired by the back cover blurb, which I just happen to have right here:
Trap doors are made to be opened, and laddersare meant to be climbed. And who can resist a slide leading down into darkness? What follows are the adventures of a curious girl who gets sucked into a vacuum, poked by a stalagmite, and locked in a cage with a family of five-eyedaliens. Frazzled and rattled and soaked in spilled milk, she comes to the brink of disaster . . . but somehow still manages to save the day.
We chose Laramie’s book because she had such a great story, such well-drawn (and consistently drawn) characters, because she had a way of keeping the story moving with humor and action and intrigue, and because she did such a great job of incorporating Robbi’s illustration prompts into her own story, including the book’s exciting conclusion.
Of course, the most fun for us is hearing about what happens when the contest winner opens the envelope and discovers that she is a published author and illustrator.
Laramie’s mom agreed to be our fly on the wall.
Here is Laramie (center) preparing open her envelope. To the right is her older sister Chloe, who also sent us a book and who also did an incredible job. We would have loved to publish Chloe’s book as well.
Here is Laramie at the moment of discovery. I see on her face just a hint of recognition that something very exciting is about to happen.
And here is Laramie in that thrilling moment of learning that one’s book-publishing dreams have come true. Most writers have this moment a good two years before the finished book actually arrives, when they get that call from their agent that says an editor has made an offer. In the strange world of Bobbledy, Laramie found out that her book was going to be published by actually seeing the finished version.
Do you get the sense that she is pleased by the news?
What makes me happy is how obviously thrilled for her Chloe is. Now THAT’s a great big sister.
After the initial jubilation, Laramie took a moment to admire her certificate.
It was full of all the flattering things the judges had to say about her book.
And then she picked up the book itself. Again, I sense happiness, pride, joy…relief?
And then, not willing to judge her book by its cover, Laramie opened it up, to read her story again, now in finished form.
At this point, the third Horstman sister Scarlett got in on the action.
Later, Laramie took a moment to revel in her accomplishment. Not yet 10 years old, she is already a published author and illustrator. When I was nine, I was still trying to figure out how my shoelaces worked.
Please join me in congratulating Laramie for a job well done. And let’s have a round of applause for every kid who wrote and illustrated a book this year. Remember that just making a book is an accomplishment in itself. And something worth doing just because it’s so fun. Not every book gets published, but every book is an amazing piece of your imagination put on paper for everyone to see. This is why books are my favorite thing in the world.
If you are not a club member and are inspired to see the masterwork of this extremely talented nine year old, here’s where to find it.
And if you’ve read the book and want to pass your thoughts about it along to Laramie, shoot me an email, and I’ll be sure she gets your message.
by Matthew | Dec 15, 2013 | Make Your Own Book |
It’s December 15, which is the due date for kid-written-and-illustrated copies of The Snowmen Below.
Look at this stack of submissions! Who knew that there were so many authors and illustrators in our midst?!
While we’ve glanced through a few, we haven’t yet taken a close look at what kids have sent us. We’ll wait a few more days for any last stragglers to wander into the mailbox, but then, no later than Wednesday, I’d guess, we’ll sit down and read every one, cover to cover.
And then, I’m guessing, we’re going to have a tough decision on our hands.
But for today, we are just plain excited. Excited that so many kids participated, excited that they seem to have taken such care in writing and illustrating their books, and excited that, six weeks from now, we will be sending out a beautiful, professionally edited, designed, printed, and published book by a kid.
One of you kids out there.
We can’t think of anything better.
by Matthew | Dec 9, 2013 | Make Your Own Book |
Yesterday’s mail brought a curious envelope from a familiar source. Those of you who follow this blog are familiar with the work of Joe Lin, regular contributor to the weekly drawing and writing prompts.
Because we love Joe and the wonderful things that come out of his head, we eagerly tore into the envelope, being very careful not to bend (but only because the envelope said “please.”)
Inside, we saw that our unwrapping work was not yet done. We had not expected a gift? But I suppose we should have.
We had expected that Joe would send us something wonderful, and we were not disappointed. It was Joe’s finished copy of The Snowmen. But instead of keeping the title as it was, Joe decided to change it to The Snowmen Party. Which got us very excited, because it had never occurred to us that snowmen might have a party. What were snowmen parties like? we wondered.
There was only one way to find out.
Inside, Joe spun a fabulous story complete with wonderful illustrations. And a lot of carrots. You probably had no idea, but no snowman party is complete without lots and lots of carrots.
The things we learn from kids…
Thank you, Joe, for writing and illustrating a book. And thank you so much for sharing it with us. Really, there’s nothing better than reading a book written by a kid. Lucky for us, we get to do it almost every day.
by Matthew | Nov 25, 2013 | Make Your Own Book |
Last week, we got an envelope in the mail. It was from Joseph and Julie M., a brother and sister who are members of the Bobbledy club.
The envelope contained their finished copies of The Snowmen Below, which made us very happy. But what made us even happier was the email their mom sent over the weekend, which contained pictures of Joseph and Julie making their books.
For example, this one, which offers a “behind the scenes” glimpse at what it looks like when a real-live author/illustrators sit down to write and draw the pictures for a book.
These guys obviously took their work very seriously.
As much fun as it is to make a book, it’s also very hard.
Joseph and Julie worked for a long time on their books, making sure to get the story just right and making sure that the illustrations were the perfect match for the words. When they were done, they were, of course, extremely excited.
But finishing their books was not enough. No, indeed! The next step was to put them in an envelope and send them to us.
Luckily, an envelope was available.
Luckily, Joseph and Julie’s awesome mom Peggy knows where the post office is.
And so they went. Probably without even eating dinner first. I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m assuming that’s what happened.
If you’ve never taken your very own book to the post office to send it off to a publishing company, it’s rather exciting.
There is a potentially terrifying moment when one is asked to hand the book across the counter to a total stranger, not knowing when or even if that precious envelope will get there safely.
But more often than not, the friendly employees of the US Postal service will give you an assuring smile and let you know that it is more than likely that your envelope will arrive in 3-5 business days.
Which makes you feel much relieved. And so you give your brother and mom a high five and head straight to the ice cream shop, where your mom treats you to the biggest, drippiest, most hot-fudge-laden sundae on the menu.
I don’t know for a fact that this happened, but I assume that it did.
Thank you, Joseph and Julie, for sending us your books! Thank you. Peggy, for being an awesome mom.
If you give us a little bit of advance notice next year, we’ll be happy to drop by for the ice cream part of things. As for the rest of you, the deadline for sending us your copies of The Snowmen Below is December 15!
by Matthew | Nov 18, 2013 | Make Your Own Book |
One of my favorite moments of every day is when I go downstairs and check the mail. It is a moment of limitless excitement and infinite possibility. After all, there is no telling what is going to be inside. Sure, the likelihood is that there will be nothing but advertisements, solicitations, and bills, but there is always the possibility that something miraculous might be inside. Magic beans from Borneo, for example, or brand-new harmonica in the key of F#, or, if I’m really, really lucky, three more kid-submitted copies of The Snowmen Below.
Yes, today was a very good day. The evidence is sitting on the table.
We got a story from Joseph.
And another from Maddy.
And one from Julie.
And the truly amazing thing? Each of these kids is an author AND an illustrator, and not one of them has yet turned seven years old.
It’s an amazing thing indeed. I’m humbled and inspired. I did not write my first book until I was 28 and did not publish my first book until I was 38.
I just can’t wait to see what the rest of the Bobbledy kids come up with. A reminder to all of you who are still working on your copies of Snowmen, the deadline is December 15, which is just under one month from now. Which is to say, you still have time, but not too much time. Hopefully these books by Joseph, Maddy, and Julie have inspired you as much as they have inspired me.
by Matthew | Oct 4, 2013 | Make Your Own Book, Our Books |
Yes, friends, it is that time of year again. The time for rolling up your sleeves, taking out your crayons and markers, and making your very own book.
This year’s “make your own book” book is called The Snowmen Below. As usual, we provide the first few sentences of a story. As usual, Robbi provides a prompt illustration on each page. And, as usual, it’s up to you to write the rest of the story and draw the rest of the pictures. It’s your turn to to be the author and the artist. Are you ready? We hope so.
Because The Snowmen is on it’s way.
Before we could send the book to you, we had to make it, of course.
As always, I put on my very best book-making clothing.
So that I would look really good while I collated and scored and folded and stapled and folded again and stacked and trimmed then trimmed again.
Making books is a lot of work. It also makes a lot of mess.
If anyone is looking for thousands of long, rectangular pieces of paper, please let us know before 9:00 this morning when the recycling truck comes by.
Eventually we had hundreds of copies of The Snowmen. We kept worrying that they might melt, but so far, so good.
Once the books were made, we had to print and fold the letters, put on the mailing label, put your book and letter inside the envelope, lick the flap, put on a stamp, and stack them all in mailing bins.
As long as it takes to make a book, it takes almost as long to put together a mailing.
But when we’re done, and all the envelopes are neatly stacked and ready to go to the post office, we get a few minutes of satisfaction. It makes us feel great, and so we smile.
But not for long. Not for Robbi. Then Robbi starts scowling again. Because she knows from long experience, that as soon as we put one book in the mail:
I make her start illustrating the next one. No rest for the weary, I say.
That goes for you guys, too. You have work to do! Make your books! Then send them to us! I smell greatness in the air!
