FINAL DAY OF AMADI'S SNOWMAN GLOBAL VIRTUAL TOUR

Hello to all our friends around the world,

It is hard to believe that an entire month has gone by. What an incredible journey this has turned out to be ! And I have so many people to thank for helping me make it a reality.

Thank you, of course, to everyone at Tilbury House, Publishers, particularly the editor, Audrey Maynard, and the Publisher, Jennifer Bunting, for being the first to foresee the possibilities in the story of this young Igbo boy. And thank you to the illustrator, Dimitrea Tokunbo, for bringing Amadi's story to life in such a vibrant and colorful way. 

Thank you to all the bloggers who enthusiastically responded to our call to participate in our month-long tour. Thank you for your thoughtful reviews and always interesting interviews.

Thank you to the teachers, librarians, and the many friends of the book in the US, Nigeria, India, Haiti and Italy who worked hard, sometimes beating impossible logistical obstacles, to get their pupils and children involved in our global virtual tour. And thank you again to Ramesh Raparthy for the two beautiful videos that he shot and edited. The children's wonderful reactions to the book, their eagerness to ask questions and offer responses to other children from other countries, as well as their beautiful artwork, have been the greatest highlights of this entire adventure.

Thank you to all who participated in the quizzes and trivia. Amadi threw all the names into a small basket and we're happy to announce that the winners of the Quizzes/Trivia games are... Florin, Aisha and Shali, in Italy. Please, email me your address privately so we can send you your prizes. See our winners below as they check the tour. Thank you also to their mother, Valentina Mmaka, for sending this great picture.

Thank you to all those who participated in our feature "Where in the World is Amadi?" Again, we wrote all the names on pieces of paper and the lucky winner drawn by Amadi is... Jio, in Japan.

I'm pleased to announce that both prizes offered by Tilbury House, Publishers, are packages containing each THREE galleys of wonderful titles published by Tilbury House (Give A Goat, by Jan West Schrock, illustrated by Aileen Darragh; Just For Elephants, by Carol Buckley; Our Friendship Rules, by Peggy Moss and Dee Dee Tardif, illustrated by Alissa Imre Geis).

To all our participants who sent photos or played the quizzes and trivia quizzes but didn't win the grand prizes, we will send a surprise gift, so do email me your snail mail addresses at katianovetatgmaildotcom.

Finally, this would not have been possible without the work, support, dedication, enthusiasm and creativity (not to mention the willingness to participate in endless brainstorm sessions with me via email) of the wonderful publicist at Tilbury House, Sarah McGinnis. I only discovered her face on Facebook recently, and I have never heard the sound of her voice. And yet, I feel I made a new friend. I find it hard to believe that I will no longer sit at my computer, each evening after I've put the children to bed, and find six, seven or eight emails from Sarah as she starts her work day in the US. Thank you so much, Sarah, for believing in this from the very beginning, and for being with me every single step of the way - when you were not ahead :)

This is only a beginning, and I want to emphasize how it has been a discovery journey for me, as well. I would like to continue building bridges between children of different countries, and I will now work at creating a format to make that dream an accessible reality available at all times. This global virtual tour broke new grounds in many areas, and I hope to take the idea even further. I encourage teachers and librarians around the world to get in touch with me if they want me to not only talk to their children about Amadi's Snowman, but also to bring a little bit of Nigeria, India or whatever country I'll be living in at any given time into their classroom or library.

And now, Amadi and I will leave you all with this little collage and a last quote from Dr Seuss which fits perfectly with all that we've been doing and talking about during these last 30 days : 

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

Thank you !