You May Already Be A Winner!

...but are you already a CON?

I am.

I'm a runner up at Lisa Graff's Bernetta Wallflower Con Artist Giveaway! My prize -- and also the prize of the other runner up, this brilliant guy named Hector who did something diabolically cool with pneumatic tubes -- is a copy of The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower.

"Oh, boy, was this book fun," chuckles Miss Erin.

Eisha says, "At heart, this is a story about friendship, trust, and finding one’s own identity and the limits of one’s own conscience. But told in the framework of a con job, complete with preteen con artists, magicians, and extortionists…"

MotherReader thinks, "The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower would be great for a book club because there is so much left open for discussion in the character and the plot." (Listen to your Mother, book club people! Calling all librarians -- go forth and read ForeWord and comment about your own librarian experiences. MotherReader thanks you.)

Now I don't have to listen to any of these people and can read the book for myself. Thanks, Lisa! And I have to give props to my sister, whose six stitches and massive headache when I was about nine and she was eleven... gave me the story I told for the contest. (Sorry, Tree.)

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And now for a little PSA.

Awhile back I read something about Reading Is Fundamental first on Jen's site, then Susan's, and then Andi's, and it nagged at me. The president's budget was calling for the elimination of Reading Is Fundamental’s (RIF) Inexpensive Book Distribution program. I kept thinking, "that can't be right," because RIF has been a fixture since I was a kid. But it's true -- 4.6 million kids may have the free book rug pulled out from under them.

You might think this is just a sad story for elementary kids, but I got access to those books until Junior High. The ALA has a book list of suggested books for the program, and includes Margaret Peterson Haddix's Running Out of Time, E.L. Konigsburg's The View from Saturday and plenty more that I would consider great books. Sure, kids can go to the library, but if you live in a home that has few or no books -- and you own a few, you, by yourself? You feel so rich.

(Imagine the world where feeling wealthy is having books. Who needs product placement then?)

The Reading Is Fundamental people have made it easy to take action by contacting your Congressional representative and voicing your concern. I'd much rather be taxed for books than bombs, as the saying goes.

Thanks for hearing -- and doing.