Yesterday on Mom 2 Mom Connection Heather reported that The Bark of the Bog Owl, by Jonathan Rogers, has been nominated for a Lamplighter Award.
I, being the children’s publishing expert that I am, had never heard of the award, so I immediately trotted over to to the Children’s Crown Awards site to find out about it. And what a cool deal.
The Children’s Gallery Award, the Children’s Crown Award, and the Lamplighter Award are nominee lists of forty new titles each year. They encourage primary, intermediate, and middle school students to read and vote on wholesome and uplifting mainstream books that have been published within the last two years.
A couple of things I noticed–The Bark of the Bog Owl is the only CBA book nominated for the Lamplighter Award. In fact, it’s the only CBA book nominated for any of the three award categories. And it’s from Broadman and Holman, which, as far as I know, isn’t owned by someone else. I think that’s exciting. Because, like it or not, CBA books do still sag under the reputation of not being as good as ABA books. But The Bark of the Bog Owl is a wonderful book and I’m glad to see it’s not suffering for having been put out by a CBA publisher.
Another thing is that Mitaly Perkins’ book Monsoon Summer is also on the list. I’ve not read it yet, but I plan to.
And the final interesting thing is that all the books on these three awards lists–ten nominated for the Children’s Gallery Award, twenty nominated for the Children’s Crown Award, and ten nominated for the Lamplighter Award–look really good. If only I had unlimited cash and time I’d be set. I know I’m going to be buying many of these for my kids, though. Ah, the joys of homeschooling. You can justify all the children’s books. =0)
One final note for those of you who happen to click over to Heather’s site to read her Update on the Wilderking Trilogy. I think, in the interest of truth in journalism, I should tell you all that I’ve spoken with Dobro Turtlebane about last week’s jaunt in Nashville. And while it is true that he approved of the wee feechie hairdos (he found them much more “sensical” than the enormous hair that was once found fashionable in Tambluff) he scoffed when he saw the boat Jonathan Rogers had acquired for his swamp tours. Scoffed, I say. He found it hard to believe that anyone would claim that tooling around the lagoon in a warm, dry civilizer boat constituted any kind of real experience with the swamp.
“That ain’t right,” he told me in that half-heartbroken, half-incredulous tone of his. “What fun is it to ride around all high and dry when all that good mud and muck is right under your feet jest waiting to welcome you? That feller ought to give them civilizers their money back!”
Now how did you get a hold of Dobro? Did he really smell all that bad?
My dear Heather, Dobro smells like God’s good clean earth. Well, maybe after some of the vegetation on said earth has fermented a bit. OK, yes, there is a wisp of swamp gas odor clinging to his gray personage. But really, after a couple of hours you get used to it and he smells just fine.
In regards to how I got a hold of him . . . I did not get a hold of him. No one gets a hold of Dobro Turtlebane ‘less he wants to be got a hold of.
No, he got a hold of me. Tackled me yesterday when I was down at the swamp hunting gators.
“Sally,” he said. “You gotta set them civilizers straight. That Rogers feller is making out that the swamp is a Sunday picnic on a cruise ship. I heerd you had a wonderful blog (that draws droves of civilizer visitors daily) so I waited for you to come hunting gators, as I knew you surely would, so’s I could tell you my message and have you spread it ’round.”
Hahah–OK, from this exchange alone, I’m sold on Bark of the Bog Owl. If nothing else, Sally, I think you have a future writing some fanfic for Rogers. Hahah
Becky
Hey, yeah. We should do a fanfic contest. If that Rogers feller would just update his blog once in a great while, he could hold a fanfic contest and offer a free signed set of the Wilderking books to the winner. That would be great.
Or even better . . . free Rogers’ books for life. heh heh. Yeehaw. I think I’ll suggest that to him the next time I bump into him in the Feechiefen Swamp.
And after the fanfic contest, he could have a spitting contest, an alligator wrestling contest, a rudeswap contest. Man, the possibilities are endless.
I’m still jealous that Dobro appeared to you and never to me. Do you happen to have a Bog Owl in your backyard?
Or maybe you have some kind of alligator tattoo that we don’t know about. Hmmm…I think you’ve been hiding something from us.
Here’s the deal, Heather. Remember how the feechies say about Aidan, “his fights is our fights and our fights is his’n,” or something like that? Well, that Rogers feller never reported it, but they also are fond of saying, “Any friend of Aidan’s is a feechiefriend.” So, while I do not have a brand in the shape of an alligator on my arm, I am still allowed to enter the Feechiefen and muck about unscathed.
How do they know I’m a friend of Aidan’s, you ask?
Do you remember when Mrs. Turtlebane won the spitting contest? Her prize was a year’s free subscription to All About Children’s Books (the natural version, printed on dried royal paulownia leaves). Bet you didn’t know she could read. She can. She is an excellent reader as well as a superior spitter. Anyway, in the course of her reading, she has read what I think of the adorable, noble, faithful, courageous, young Aidan Errolson. And so she has spread the word that I am a friend of Aidan’s and therefore a feechiefriend.
Would you like me to introduce you to Dobro? You’re welcome to come along on my next gator hunt.