Welcome back! I’m delighted you came back one more time to the Literary Lodge. You know, we are sure going to miss having everyone here every day. I hope you won’t forget us entirely. We’d love to have you stop by the blogs and visit each week.
Before we announce winners, Kate and I would like to say a few words.
First off we want to thank each and every one of you who participated in this party. We were blown away by your terrifically enthusiastic response to this first (and hopefully not last) Five Fall Favorites party! When we first started planning it, I was hoping we could get at least 30 people entered into the Grand Prize. But my sister urged me to aim for 50. And, not only did we make 50, but, thanks to your amazing efforts, we more than doubled that number! Thank you!
We want to give a special thank you to those of you who actually posted your own Top 5 on your blog! Thanks for sharing the fun!
Next we want to thank each of the hostesses for hosting such delightful party rooms! Didn’t you enjoy them? Sarah, Amanda, Blessing Counter, Kellyn, this party wouldn’t have been the same without you. Thank you for being willing to decide on your favorite books! Not an easy task as some of you have discovered. You prepared a week of blog posts, answered questions, replied to comments and were willing to donate your books for giveaways. It was wonderful working with each one of you.
(*Applause please*)
We also wanted to mention Amanda, Kellyn and Blessing Counter specifically and thank them for their great graphic design! Amanda created our party banner and the buttons that took you from one room to the next. Kellyn designed those cute little “party room” images that let you know which room you were in. And Blessing Counter designed that really attractive graphic with the Grand Prizes. You all know what that looks like as I’m sure you’ve all been eyeing it. 🙂 You three are terrific!
(*Applause please*)
And now, I know she will probably turn pink and try to make me be quiet (Sorry, I’m not handing the mic over to you, Kate!), but I have to say a special thank you to Kate. After all, it was her idea which first sparked this party into life. She was great to work with, tossed ideas back and forth with me all via email at all sorts of hours, offered suggestions, expressed opinions, and really helped make this party what it was. So, Kate, thank you! I never would have thought of doing this party on my own. And without you being there for me, I would probably have called it quits. (Everyone be sure you thank Kate on her blog today!)
(*Thunderous Applause and cheers please*)
All right, all right, I won’t keep you in suspense another minute! I know you are all waiting eagerly to find out who the winners for our Five Fall Favorites door prizes are! And of course our Grand Prize winners!
*Drum roll please*
All right, all right. Quiet down now, please. Quiet down I am happy to announce the winners of our Daily Door Prizes are as follows:
Monday’s winner of – The Treasure Hunt
CutePolarBear
Tuesday’s winner of – Either The Dressmaker’s Secret or The Lady of the Vineyard
Jesseca Wheaton
Wednesday’s winner of – Their choice of e-book from Amanda Tero!
Holly
Thursday’s winner of – Fitting In
Bethany W.
Friday’s winner of – Their choice of e-book from Sarah Holman!
Gabriellyn
And the Grand Prize winner is–
We interrupt this special announcement to take you back to our regularly scheduled program. Take a few minutes and enjoy the extra genres we just couldn’t leave out.
Classic
- Little Women (I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I’ve read or listened to this book. I know and love each of the characters. I sometimes wonder if Louisa May Alcott ever thought her story would still be read and loved by millions of people.)
- Pollyanna (You’ve probably watched the Hollywood version of this story. If you have, let me inform you that it’s not the book. Some things are similar, but there was no fair, no falling out of a tree in disobedience to her aunt’s wishes that she remain at home. But there is Mrs. Snow, Jimmy Bean, John Pendleton (who is not anything like Disney portrays him!) and so many others. If you haven’t read the book, you should go do so without delay.)
- The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (This is the first book about this charming little family. You’ll love them all: Polly, Ben, Joel, Davy and little Phronsie. And we can’t leave out Jasper when we talk about lovable characters, nor Mamsie! I remember reading this book aloud to some friends and, since there were just enough children in their family to account for all the major children characters, they took to playing “Five Little Peppers.” We had such fun! And, since the characters all got along well, it was a good book to pretend.)
- Heidi (I got a copy of this book for Christmas the year I was seven. It was the same year I had the chicken pox. My grandpa spent hours that holiday season reading this book aloud to me while I colored and listened. I’ve never forgotten it. Since then I’ve read it and listened to the story so often that I know it by heart. And I love all the other books I’ve read by this author too.)
- Swiss Family Robinson (Should I quote it to you? Probably not. This is one of the first audio books my brother, sister and I got when we were young. We listened to it over and over and over. When we went on car trips, or sat at home and worked on projects, this story always interested me. I loved to picture everything in my head and have such a vivid idea of where everything takes place in the story that watching the Disney perversion of it, makes me cringe and roll my eyes. Go read the book!)
Christmas
I LOVE Christmas stories! I absolutely love them. It was so hard to decide just which 5 I was going to pick. The top three were easy. I knew they had to go on the list. But I had four others all competing for the last two spaces. Such agonies! I ended up going with the two books I’ve been reading the longest. But if you want my complete list of Christmas favorites, just stick around this blog in December.
- Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas (This is my top, top favorite Christmas story. I’ve read it or heard it every December for as long as I can remember. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without this sweet story! You can read my review of it here.)
- Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot (Have you read any of the Windy Foot books? If not, you can jump right in with this one. This story, heartwarming, fun, exciting, sweet, is one I read every Christmas. We didn’t have it when I was younger, but after we got it, it’s been a part of my Christmas reading. And it’s such a fun story to read aloud. Share it with younger siblings by reading it to them.)
- A Pint of Judgement (“It’s just sense, common sense.” This is a tiny story. The book itself is so small that you might miss it (unless you get a larger size one like I did), but the story is so sweet! Read my review here.)
- A Bird’s Christmas Carol (If you want to laugh and cry over a Christmas book, read this one. There are tender moments and sad ones, but there are also times when you just have to laugh! This is a book my mom always read aloud to us at Christmas time. Read my review here. I also tell you where you can get the audio for free if you want to listen to it.)
- Arne and the Christmas Star (Norway, Christmas time, a new teacher, a boy and a Christmas Star. We discovered this book many years ago and it instantly became a favorite. Go here to read my review and find other Christmas titles by this wonderful author.)
Here they are, one more time. Take a look at these Party Rooms before they clean things up and return their blogs back to their normal posts. They are going to share their Top 5 Classic and Christmas books with you and you won’t want to miss them!
This blog is not posting her Top 5 books, but her newest book is being released today if you want to drop by and take a look. I know she’d love to have you!
Grand Prize
And now to return to our special announcement!
Since we reached our extra special goal of 100 people entered in the giveaway, we can now award a 2nd and 3rd prize.
Our 3rd prize winner is
Alicia B. from Canada!
Our 2nd prize winner is
Sarah B. from the US!
The winner of our Grand Prize is
Abigail P. from Uganda!
A US winner will get a “bright ideas” jar full of story prompts, plus four paperback books.
If we have an International winner instead, they will receive a $20.00 Amazon gift card and three kindle books.
Entrants for Grand Prize
And that’s it. There isn’t any more. The party is over and clean up time has arrived. You want to stay and help? Sure, we could use a few extra hands. Oh, wait, before you help clean up, take a few minutes to fill out our survey if you haven’t already. You can use one of the benches if you need a place to sit. We won’t take them all away.
The rest of you can give us a hand. All the blankets need to be folded and put away. The bonfires need put out and the extra wood brought up to the lodge to be used in the fireplace this winter. The rest of the bushels of apples will have to be taken care of. I think we’ve almost used the apples up. Then we can stack the baskets in the barn. Oh, the benches! We need to take most of them to the barn. The rest can sit and wait for the showers of autumn’s leaves, and then winter’s blanket of snow. As for the books, well, they can all get put back on the shelves again to wait for someone to take them off later and enjoy them. Perhaps you would like to come back to the Literary Lodge some time and just browse the bookshelves. I’d be happy for you to come.
Thank you for joining us for this party. I hope you had as much fun as we did.
“I hope next year at Summer’s end
you’ll come along and bring a friend.” ~Apple Pigs
Congrats to the winners and thanks to all! It was fun. 🙂
Thanks for coming, Raechel!
Congratulations to the winners! I had a lot of fun. Thank you to all who hosted! I found many good books to read. 🙂
CutePolarBear
P.S. Rebekah, I just love your profile picture. 🙂
Thanks. 🙂 I’m glad you could join us for the fun and that you found lots of good books to read. 🙂
Such a great party! Can’t wait for the next one XD
Glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully we can do this again next fall!
Congrats to the winners!!! And I love your book choices, Rebekah… 😉
Still need more Christmas stories? 😉
Wow! It’s already over! I can’t believe it! *feels guilty about not getting post out today* *realizes I can definitely blame it on my friend* 😉
I know, the week went by really quickly. Well, if you still wanted to share you Top 5 Classic and Christmas books, you could always let me know and I’ll come read them. 🙂
Congratulations to the winners! 😀 And thank you for hosting, ladies, this has been such fun. 🙂
You are welcome, Faith! Thanks for coming and joining us!
Hi, I completed the survey while the blog party was still on, but I still haven’t received the e-book that I chose at the end of the survey. I was just wondering what had happened? I’m sure I put my right email address in.
Let me go check. Sorry, she’s working on sending them. I only got emails to everyone yesterday, so if you don’t get anything by later today, let me know and I’ll find out what’s going on.
Thanks for checking.