In this issue: Jacquie Lawson's Card of the Month, current and past CCF winning contest entries, book reviews, a list of good books on writing, a listserv for children's book writers and illustrators and a website that allows you to feel both smart and charitable at the same time.

NEW TO THE CCF SITE:

• Children:
  • Jacquie Lawson's Card of the Month - Jacquie Lawson is an English artist who has created what she calls "the classiest cards on the web." We agree. Lawson's attention to detail makes them mesmerizing to watch. Visit Jacquie's website and view the many animated e-cards she offers.
• Books4Children: b4c (books4children) is an online discussion group for children's writers and illustrators in the Rocky Mountain region, though we also have members from other parts of the country. The listserve is moderated by Julie Anne Peters and Olgy Gary. Anyone interested may join by sending a note using the CCF contact form.
• CCF Writing contest: 
  • First Lines Wanted - Send us your first lines! This is a call for suggested "first lines" we can use for the CCF Online Writing Contest. The contest changes themes, and first lines, on a monthly basis. We often associate first lines to a monthly theme but not always.
  • Use this month's "first line" to write your story. The contest is open to kids of all ages, from elementary school students to senior citizens. Both those new to writing as well as published authors are invited to participate.  
  • 2008 Winning Entries - So far this year we've had entries with first lines related to National Nothing Day, Cupid, St. Patrick's Day. April's entries start out with a first line submitted by Stephanie Hanouw. We're now in the process of editing and deciding which entries get to be posted online.
  • 2007 Winning Contest Entries - Click this title to view the 2007 winning contest entries.
• Resources: Good books on writing - Over time we've compiled a list of suggested resources we share with writers and writing contest participants. We count these books as main resources in our “how to write” library.
• Publishing: In the past few months we've listed several venues our site's visitors can use to submit their writing. Write back and let us know if you've followed through on any of these and how it turned out. The ones we've listed were:
  • Highlights 2008 Fiction Contest
  • POCKETS Fiction Writing Contest
  • Highlights for Children Current Needs
  • 10th Annual Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition
• Reviews:   Monster Blood Tattoo: Book One: Foundling - I just finished reading a wonderful fantasy novel for the second time: "Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo book I)," by first time author D.M. Cornish. The book was sent to CCF as a review copy by a Senior Editor at G.P. Putnam's Sons. The paperback edition [ISBN: 0142409138] came out September 6, 2007. This is a young boy's survival story that is sure to grab middle grade students' attention.
• Blog: Feeding the hungry one word at a time -  I recently learned about a cool new website called freerice.com that made me feel both smart and charitable at the same time. You play a vocabulary game and for every right answer you give, the site donates 20 grains of rice to help end world hunger through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
• Bestsellers: Booksense Bestseller Lists - Links to the lists are updated regularly

REVISIT OLD FRIENDS: We would love to hear from site visitors as to which articles are their favorites. Write back and let us know and we'll list your favorite in future bulletins under your name. Here are links to several books we've talked about in the past.

• The Light of the Oracle -  We absolutely LOVE reading Victoria Hanley's books. The Light of the Oracle is just one of them. Visit Hanley's website for more about this award-winning author. 
• The Influentials - One in ten Americans tells the other nine how to vote. And where to eat. And what to buy, where to vacation, and on and on. Who are they? They're The Influentials.
• Know Your Parenting Personality: How to Use the Enneagram to Become the Best Parent you Can Be is a powerful new book on parenting by author and educator Janet Levine. In this book Levine applies The Enneagram, a popular system of personality mapping, to parenting. The book is geared towards book clubs and discussion groups and includes a discussion guide.
  

Thank you for subscribing to the CCF Bulletin. Make the CCF site your own! Keep sending us your favorite links, news items, book reviews and questions we can design polls for. It's great to hear from our visitors and post their input to the CCF site. Also, let us know if you notice links that are not working. Let's keep the CCF site free of link rot! 

All for now,

Olgy
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Olgy Gary, M.A., CCF's General Manager
Children Come First...because they're our greatest treasure!
http://www.childrencomefirst.com

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The CCF Bulletin is a free electronic bulletin published by Children Come First and recaps news and information posted to the CCF site. Forward this email to friends and coworkers you think would enjoy receiving it and let them know they can subscribe by entering their name and email in the "Get our bulletin" fields on the CCF web pages. You can subscribe to our RSS feed and get up-to-the-minute headlines from our site displayed on your browser, web pages or blog. We've installed an RSS feed on both the CCF site and Olgy's blog.