Zoe is sad. Her hair droops and drizzles and trails behind her on the sidewalk. Her sad hair picks up fallen leaves and twigs and discarded acorn tops. Zoe’s chances of making it inside a Cheerios box are grim; she has been bumped out of the top five. There are a couple of other books in the running that are friends of hers (ALL THE WORLD and T-REX IN THE LIBRARY), so that makes her feel better. A little better. Not much, honestly.
Zoe’s hair snags on a tree root that has broken through the sidewalk. (you have to imagine the artwork, it’s too early to wake up Ard and ask him to draw something.)
Zoe stops. Zoe stares. Her hair twines around the root of the tree. Zoe turns around. This tree – this magnificent, splendiferous, amazing tree, did not let a little thing like a concrete sidewalk keep it from reaching for the sky. "We won’t either!" Zoe shouts. Zoe’s hair bounces back. It curls, it swirls, it zooms!
Zoe decides that no matter how hard the fight, how high the odds, she will never give up.
You can’t give up either. You only have TWO MORE DAYS to vote!! You can put Zoe back in the Cheerios box where she belongs!!
1. Copy and paste the suggestions and voting guidelines below and send them to everyone you know. Post a link to your Twitter. Put it in your Facebook and Myspace status lines. Tweet. Shout. Storm. Spread the news – only two more days to help our favorite redhead!
2. In the bottom right corner, click on MORE BOOKS twice. (Yes, this is the tricky part. No, I don’t know why Zoe is buried at the absolute back of the pack. Kind of makes you feelsorry for her, huh?) That will take you to ZOE.
3. Click on the yellow box that says VOTE!
4. Notify every person you have ever met in your entire life to PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE. I seriously mean that.
5. Do this every day until 11:59 pm Central Time, October 30. That is only a few more days!
For the first time since the contest began, Zoe has been kicked out of the top five! How did this happen?
Micheal Ian Black. He is a comedian, and actor, a Twitterer with over one million followers, and the author of The Purple Kangaroo. He seems nice enough, but man, oh man, is his book putting the big hurt on Zoe: his book has kicked Zoe out of the the top five!!
The top five books in the competition will make it into Cheerios boxes, so Zoe still has a chance, but only if you can spare her a few seconds today and every day through the end of the week.
2. In the bottom right corner, click on MORE BOOKS twice. (Yes, this is the tricky part. No, I don’t know why Zoe is buried at the absolute back of the pack. Kind of makes you feel sorry for her, huh?) That will take you to ZOE.
3. Click on the yellow box that says VOTE!
4. Notify every person you have ever met in your entire life to
PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE. Yes, I seriously mean that.
5. Do this every day until the end of October. That is only a few more days!
NOW, FOR THE THE GREAT NEWS
Today’s Guest Blogger prefers to remain anonymous, so we’ll just call him a Friend of the Forest, which he is, indeed.
He was curious about this program that gets books into boxes of Cheerios, so he did a bit of digging. He wrote the following letter and gave me permission to post it.
"Waking Up with Cheerios
This is an apology to Laurie, Liz Scanlon, and about six million children.
Last week, when Scanlon posted here and wished Laurie good luck in the contest, I wrote back to her and said, “I haven’t read your book, but the cover is captivating. Cheerios probably won’t be marking what books are in what boxes, so if I don’t get ZOE on my first few tries, I hope I get ALL THE WORLD.”
I actually thought I’d be doing a good thing by buying all those boxes. But, looking back on it now, I was wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things.
First, you can actually see inside the Cheerios boxes. I haven’t bought cereal for ages, and I didn’t know, but that is a cool way to do it so that kids don’t get two of the same book. Kudos to Cheerios for that.
What really woke me up, though, is when I wondered how exactly these six million books are paid for. I knew the authors didn’t get royalties, but someone had to pay for the printing, and the Spoonfuls of Stories page didn’t tell me much at all.
I was blown away – Cheerios has been doing this for eight years and so far has donated 3.2 million dollars of its own money to put 40 million books in their boxes. How cool is that?
I kept reading, and soon I realized the whole point of Spoonfuls of Stories isn’t to promote the books or even Cheerios. It’s to get books to kids who don’t have books. In short, I’d missed the entire point.
Well, I kept reading and discovered that the ones behind it all are the folks at First Book. So I went to the
First Book site, and while it’s difficult for many of us to believe that so many children don’t have books of their own, here’s the facts:
* A recent study shows that while in middle income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.
* 80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for their children.
All of a sudden I felt very small. Like I’d heard a diner was giving away free books, gone in and grabbed a bunch, and then on the way out happened to look up and see a sign saying it’s a soup kitchen. Meaning those books just might be these kids’ only chance to get books all year. Something they can take home, call their own, and read again and again. Opening up an entire world for them and giving them theskills they need.
I’d been thinking of only what I could get, even when I can perfectly afford to buy ZOE and ALL THE WORLD and so give the authors something in return. And meanwhile here’s countless volunteers at First Book delivering millions of books to children in need.
I felt like the biggest schmuck in ALL THE WORLD.
So right then I decided to donate to First Book and help promote their work. And to say yes, root for your favorite authors’ books, and yes, get your vote in each day, ‘cause the contest is still very cool, just now for a much better reason.
As Liz Scanlon says in
her own post about the contest, “The book choices are all mighty fine so I’m not worried either way – it’s just flat-out goodness for the kids.”
And it’s true. In the face of what the contest does, it doesn’t matter who wins. It only matters that First Book continues, and in that everyone can help.
One way to do that is to go to The Literacy Site. I’ve actually been clicking on every tab on that page for years, and never knew till today, when reading down through it, that it’s backed by none other than First Book.
Also, if you do pick up a box of Cheerios, another way to help is through the donation form on the side. An easy way to say thanks for the book and for all the work First Book and Cheerios do.
Jon Scieszka sums up their mission well: “From my perspective as an author, a teacher, and a dad, what Cheerios is doing through this Spoonfuls of Stories program is exactly and spectacularly right.”"
Me, again. THANK YOU, Friend of the Forest, for the research and the reminder of what really matters. What matters is that children will have books in their hands, books that are just as important to their growing minds as breakfast is for their growing bodies. It will be fun if my book is included, but the really awesome part is that this program gets books to children and when that happens, we all win.
TOMORROW: I MIGHT HAVE TO ANNOUNCE PLANS THAT I, TOO, WILL BECOME A COMEDIAN AND ACTOR TO ATTRACT ONE MILLION FOLLOWERS ON TWITTER AND BOOST MY CAREER AS A CHILDREN’S AUTHOR.
I have a couple of tidbits I’ve been wanting to share with you, so get your pens and paper ready.
1. Congratulations to Professor Annette Gordon-Reed for winning prize after exquisite prize for her incredible, important, must-be-read-by-all-Americans book, The Hemingses of Monticello. In addition to taking last year’s National Book Award for Non-Fiction, and the Pulitzer for History earlier this year, it was recently announced that Hemingses was awarded the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, awarded for the best book written in English on slavery or abolition.
2. Christopher Moore, curator of the Schomberg Center and one of the generous vetters for Chains, has written a book with his eight-year-old son Matthew based on a 400 million-year-old boulder that is now in a park near their home in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The book is not published yet, but the story has been turned into a musical, Matthew Takes Mannahatta, which opened last weekend. Bravo!
3. An independent bookseller (who is NOT my daughter) has written an open letter to all authors about the vital bookseller-author relationship. Please read it.
4. The first two books of my Vet Volunteers series have been translated into Japanese!!! Squeeeeeeeee!
Covers!!
They have ILLUSTRATIONS!! How cool is that?
And that is all the Tidbits from the Forest today.
UPDATE ON THE ZOE VOTE AND THOUGHTS ON BREAKFAST TABLE READING:
I know you guys are getting sick of this, but the contest is almost over. Zoe still needs one vote a day, every day, if she is to stand a chance at winding up in abox of Cheerios next year.
When I was a kid, I lived in a house that had the most ridiculous rule in the world: no reading at the breakfast table. This meant that I read the cereal box obsessively. I can still recite way too many lists of ingredients.
When I grew up and became The Boss, I made a new rule: you MUST bring a book to the breakfast table. And now, because all the stars are lining up, one my books – THE HAIR OF ZOE FLEEFENBACHER GOES TO SCHOOL – could be the book that winds up on a million breakfast tables. This is most important to me because a lot of the kids who get a book in their cereal live in families who don’t have the extra money for books. Because of this fun contest, if they eat a good breakfast, they get a free book. That is pretty cool.
2. In the bottom right corner, click on MORE BOOKS twice. (Yes, this is the tricky part. No, I don’t know why Zoe is buried at the absolute back of the pack. Kind of makes you feel sorry for her, huh?) That will take you to ZOE.
3. Click on the yellow box that says VOTE!
4. Notify all of your friends, neighbors, family members, the folks at church
or temple or mosque or other house of faith, the rest of the PTA, the people at the firehouse, everyone in your classroom, and tell them all pretty, pretty please with a headful of unruly red hair, PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE.
5. Do this every day until the end of October. That is only a few more days!
TOMORROW: A FRIEND OF THE FOREST HAS DONE SOME RESEARCH ABOUT THE PROGRAM THAT SUPPLIES THE BOOKS TO THE CHEERIOS BOXES. HEART-WARMING AND FASCINATING!
Thank you so much for voting once a day, every day! Last I heard, Zoe had moved back into fourth place. Fourth is a lovely place, indeed. But there are still seven days left in the voting, so this contest is not over, not by a long shot.
I am spending today in my writing cottage, working on this draft of my next historical, FORGE. If you want to cheer me on and encourage me to keep the words dripping from my fingertips, the best way you can do that is to vote. Please!
2. In the bottom right corner, click on MORE BOOKS twice. (Yes, this is the tricky part. No, I don’t know why Zoe is buried at the absolute back of the pack. Kind of makes you feel sorry for her, huh?) That will take you to ZOE.
3. Click on the yellow box that says VOTE!
4. Notify all of your friends, neighbors, family members, the folks at church
or temple or mosque or other house of faith, the rest of the PTA, the people at the firehouse, everyone in your classroom, and tell them all pretty, pretty please with a headful of unruly red hair, PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE.
5. Do this every day until the end of October.
COMING THIS WEEK: I MIGHT JUST DO SOMETHING EXTREMELY SILLY. PLUS, I THINK I’M GOING TO BE IN NEW JERSEY ON THURSDAY. BUT THE TWO THINGS ARE NOT RELATED. I THINK.
Yep. LOTS of candles on this one; too many to count. Guess this means I should be getting smarter any day now, right?
I am the birthday girl on the right; turning two years old and looking a bit wary about the idea. The cutie pie on the left is my cousin, Barrie Lyn, and that’s my suave Dad in the background.
I share my natal anniversary with a number of friends and authors and some friends-who-are-authors: Gordon Korman, Alex Flinn, Michael Crichton, Augusten Burroughs, Pele, Ang Lee, and the ever-adorable, Weird Al Yankovic.
Today is also Mole Day, which has to do with chemistry, not small critters who dig tunnels. And it is the beginning of the time of Scorpio (though some folks point to tomorrow and call today the "cusp.").
My plans for the day include writing, a long run, familyness, and pumpkin pie. (I am not terribly fond of cake.)
I know you’ve been so busy you haven’t had a chance to run out and get me anything. My birthday wish is simple and so inexpensive it is free.
WILL YOU PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE AS MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT? PRETTY PLEASE WITH BIRTHDAY CANDLES ON TOP?
2. In the bottom right corner, click on MORE BOOKS twice. (Yes, this is the tricky part. No, I don’t know why Zoe is buried at the absolute back of the pack. Kind of makes you feel sorry for her, huh?) That will take you to ZOE.
3. Click on the yellow box that says VOTE!
4. Notify all of your friends, neighbors, family members, the folks at church or temple or mosque or other house of faith, the rest of the PTA, the people at the firehouse, everyone in your classroom, and tell them all pretty, pretty please with a headful of unruly red hair, PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE.
