Thank you for coming along to help us celebrate our first birthday. Please help yourself to some bookish treats.
Photo Source: Hungry Happenings
Make sure you say hello to some special guests who have travelled to be here today, and who have been very generous with their gifts.
I wanted to do something extra special to celebrate our first birthday. I contacted my three very favourite Australian illustrators and invited them to the party.
Not only are my three favourite illustrators incredibly talented but they are incredibly giving. Each has brought along a unique gift to the party- for some lucky readers to take home at the end of the party. I can honestly tell you that I cried when I opened the packages that these superb artists were willing to provide for our celebration.
Nick Bland and The Very Cranky Bear
Colorific love creating fun, and they didn’t want to miss out on our celebration either.
Find yourself a comfy place to sit.
Photo Source: Small Rooms
Chink. Chink. What’s a party without a speech?
Phot Source: David Singleton
This was my daughter when I first thought of starting My Little Bookcase. One year ago, my daughter wasn’t even walking. She would bum-shuffle across to our little bookcase. Now she’s running, has much more hair and I can’t peel her away from books. I hope your children have come to love books as much as my daughter has.
I started My Little Bookcase because at the time I didn’t think there was anything like it. There certainly were many wonderful people promoting children’s literature in different ways through industry promotions, book reviews and even book clubs that provided assistance to libraries and childcare centres. I wanted to produce something more casual and less formal that inspired parents to connect with books in interesting ways. I was hoping that we could help children fall in love with books and reading.
Over the past year many other websites have evolved and I admit there is some overlap with what we offer our readers. Nevertheless, I’m really proud of what I’ve been able to achieve over the past year and it’s also exciting to know there are many people advocating the importance of reading with children.
A huge thank you must go to our readers, especially those of you who have been reading my posts for a year and those of you who interact and get involved by leaving comments on the website and facebook page.
I’ve never claimed to be a guru and I think it’s really wonderful to be able to learn and pick up new ideas from each other. I hope you’ll stick around for another year.
I thought you might be interested in some MLB Fast Facts from the past year:
No of posts: 218 posts and 6 that I wrote but never published.
No. of giveaways: 17 giveaways and 41 winners
No. of Facebook likers: 1, 476
Unique visitors to the site: 12, 311
Most popular post of the year: The interest in the Countdown to Christmas post just blew me away but was it really wasn’t published until after our first birthday. So, officially the most popular post of the year was The Golden Book Challenge.
My personal favourite post of the year: I loved working with my readers to interview Peter Carnavas. That was very special, and really symbolised what I had envisioned for My Little Bookcase. I also loved writing about what an important role my husband has played in helping our daughter develop a love of books and reading.
My favourite book we’ve featured during the year: This question is almost impossible to answer , but I’m going to be brave and say The Great Expedition by Peter Carnavas (New Frontier Publishing).
My daughter’s favourite book we’ve featured during year: Cupcake by Charlise Mercile Harper (Disney-Hyperion).
Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for- The Fun and Games:
The main game for this evening will be a game of Virtual Pass the Parcel. Once you’ve registered to play the game of Pass the Parcel, make your way over to our Facebook page where you can meet some other followers, play some games and find out who wins each of the 11 parcels.
We have 11 super-dooper-extra-special prizes to giveaway at our party. You can read more about them here.
Please read the instructions carefully:
- For your chance to win one of these prizes you need to register to play a game of Pass the Parcel. To do this, leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
- Each reader may enter only once
- International readers are welcome to take part in the party but only Australian residents are eligible to win prizes.
- Comments/registrations will close at 9.20pm (AEDT), allowing the game of Virtual Pass the Parcel to begin.
- Make sure you come over to our Facebook wall. That’s where all the action is happening.
- I’ll play some imaginary music.
- ‘When the music stops”, I will randomly select one person from the list. (with the help of random.org)
- The selected person must choose the prize they’d like to receive.
- You will find out if you’re a winner on our facebook page and via an email.
- A good game is a fast game, so be ready because you only have two minutes to send an email to [email protected] with your name, prize of choice and delivery address. If you have not responded within two minutes, the parcel will continue ‘around the circle’ and another name will be drawn.
- If an international reader has accidentally left a comment and been selected, another name will be drawn.
- This process will continue until all 11 parcels have been opened and allocated. Each consecutive winner will be able to choose from the remaining prizes.
- Here are the prizes again. You can read more about them here:
Goodie Bags
I don’t have much I can give you in the way of goodie bags, but feel free to download our birthday colouring sheet for some rainy day fun!
I hope you have a fun night. Remember to head over to our Facebook page.
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