And the Winner is…
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.