A Librarian's Lucky Day

We had a great response to our lobster giveaway contest, and I want to thank everyone who signed up. Dozens and dozens of your fellow librarians from all over the country entered (even from Hawaii), and some confessed to literally drooling to be the winner.

I was happy to see that a lot of you also gave the book Mr. Moodie wrote about us the thumbs-up. What an enthusiastic group you are! Many thanks for everything you’re doing to help the book make its way in the world. I thought you might like to see some of the comments:

Amy from Wisconsin: “Love the website and the concept! Reminds me of Janet Tashjian’s “”Gospel According to Larry”" website. I’m going to try to work this interactive, virtual reality character concept into a future YA book group activity.”

David from Kentucky: “Those little lobsters will have quite a way to walk to get from Fog Island to my door! I’ll perk them right up with a quick dip in their own personal hot tub, though!”

Erica from Illinois: “Grew up in Boston, land of lobsters, but now live in Central Illinois and am deprived of my favorite crustaceans. I can’t wait to read this book and hope to win some lobstas!”

Ellen from Missouri: “My daughter’s birthday is New Year’s day and she looooooves lobster and I’m sure we are both going to enjoy your book tremendously! Fingers crossed!”

Catalina from New York: “I love two things about this—the book and the lobsters.  I hardly ever win anything but this would be a memorable experience to share with the kiddos at school! I will be promoting the book as well as finding out how many of my students enjoy lobster.  I actually think that more than half of them probably have never even had lobster.”

Debbie from Florida: “I would LOVE to share some MAINE lobsters with my students so they would know the sweet explosion of flavor they would taste instead of the puny crustaceans we have down here!”

Julie from Texas: “What an exciting contest! I would love to be a Librarian Lobster!  Looking forward to enjoying your book!”

Moses from Hawaii:  “Hi!  I’m a Children’s Librarian for the Hilo Public Library, and I’d love to be entered to win these lobsters.  Thanks for the opportunity—and for bringing attention to this book! Mahalo.”

Linda from Arizona: “I would love to win 4 Maine lobsters, which I would then share with three other school librarians!  So not just one librarian winning but four!!”

Kim from Maine: “Looking into the book—sounds like a keepah!”

My only regret is that we have to choose one winner. Dad wasn’t too keen on giving away lobsters in the first place (“There’s no percentage in it”) and he really didn’t like the idea I had about giving away a runner-up prize of a pair of lobsters.

So we decided to put all the names in a lobster tote (cleaned out, of course) and draw one at random. I fiddled my fingers around in the slips of paper for a while. I have to tell you my heart started racing when I finally latched onto one and drew it out.

And the winner is—drum roll, please—April Van Buren of Mesa Vista Consolidated Schools, Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, who writes “I’m the librarian for a tiny district of 400 students total—two elementary schools and one 7-12 campus. Thank you for the opportunity!”

As my Mom said, don’t think about all the librarians who didn’t win. Think of this as a win for all librarians.

Those of you who didn’t win the lobsters, please don’t forget about participating in Readers Win promotions.