Lola's New Year (Book) Raffle
My Lola (my grandma on my mom’s side) and I were close. She had a special relationship with each of her grandchildren. Still, even after she’s been gone for 18 years, I can picture her smile (with bright red lipstick!) and hear her laughter and it makes me smile too.
Lola’s tradition on New Year’s Day was to gather her grandchildren for a New Year’s Day raffle. The prizes were initially shiny dollar coins with larger bills being the big prize, and later morphed into higher amounts as we grew older. For the last several years, I’ve been honoring her tradition in a new way: book prizes from Lola to my kids and to my niece and nephews. (See previous book raffle choices here and here.)
This year’s list:
For Monkey and Piggy (ages 4): The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld.
For Monkey and Piggy (ages 4): Lost in the Library by Josh Funk and illustrated by Stevie Lewis
For E (age 10): The Fourteenth Goldfish and The Third Mushroom by Jennifer L. Holm. I’m excited for E to read this series. It sounds amazing and was recommended by our librarian. I may have to buy them for us too, though, as I want us to read them in order but the first one is always out with another reader.
For Gummy (age 5): Pirasaurs! by Josh Funk and illustrated by Michael H. Slack
For Mini Me (age 12): the second two books in the Shades of Magic trilogy by V.E. Schwab, A Gathering of Shadows and A Conjuring of Light. These were recommended to me by a patient who is also a writer. Thank you!
For Little Lion (age 8): the How to Train Your Dragon graphic novels, Dragonvine and The Serpent’s Heir. These graphic novels were based on the series by Cressida Cowell and were written by Dean Deblois and Richard Hamilton and illustrated by Doug Wheatley. I couldn’t resist buying these because, as you may know, I have huge dragon fans in the bookworm house. Toothless is still a big favorite and LL was introduced to this series by her cousin, E. (See my recent recommendation of How to Be a Viking, which posted yesterday.)
Happy New Year, my Lola! Kiss my baby for me. xo
Tell Dr. Bookworm!
Do you have a unique family tradition?
