Vote at First Book!

For many kids, books aren't widely available. That's where First Book can help. Right now, First Book is asking you to vote for the state you feel is most worthy of a donation of 50,000 new children's books! You can vote once a day up until September 30th at http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/whatbook/. First Book also wants to know: What book got you hooked? Results of the national vote – as well as a Top 50 list of books that got readers hooked – will be published in October.

As Promised: Winner of the Angeline Jellybean Prize!

Sorry for posting this late. As promised, here is the announcement about the winner of the special Angeline Jellybean prize from jellybelly.com!

The winner is Beth Bence Reinke. Congratulations, Beth!

If you could please e-mail me your address (crystaleecalderwood@gmail.com) your prize will be in the mail shortly!

Thanks to everyone who entered. Unfortunately, the contest didn't generate as much activity as expected, but look out for more contests and special events soon.

Contest: Help Angeline Taste the World!

Angeline came to me with a problem today. She is tired of living on the farm and wants to see the world! I’m afraid her sweet tooth is back. She told me she’s heard that Ocean City has some great salt water taffy, Hershey, Pennsylvania has the best chocolate, and she can’t wait to get her hands on some Turkish delight!

I promised Angeline I’d help her try as many sweet treats as possible. To achieve her goal, she must visit as many of you as possible! Here’s how you can help:

1) If you’ve already purchased a copy of Angeline Jellybean, let me know what city or state you live in, and what candies Angeline has tried there, in a comment below.
2) If you haven’t purchased Angeline Jellybean yet, what are you waiting for? Angeline is hungry for new types of candy. There are several ways you can buy the book:
*Order it on Amazon.com
*Order it from the publisher, 4RV Publishing
*Go to your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy for you

Once you order Angeline Jellybean, leave a comment below listing your city or state and what candy you’re going to give Angeline. Post your message by August 13th, 2009 and you could win a prize!

Now, here’s the fun part! On or after August 15th 2009, I will choose one person at random to receive a very special prize of jellybeans from JellyBelly.com, courtesy of me!

Good luck! (And let’s hope that Angeline doesn’t get sick from eating all this candy!)

Angeline Jellybean Book Review on Suite 101 by Mayra Calvani

Mayra Calvania, author of the picture book Crash! has posted a review of Angeline Jellybean on Suite 101. You can see her review here.

PLUS Stay tuned to this blog tomorrow, where Angeline and I will be making an announcement about a very special contest!

Win 9 Books from Presenting Lenore!

Over at Presenting Lenore, Lenore is giving a way a special prize pack of 9 unpcoming Penguin YA novels. Check out her blog to learn how you can enter!