{"id":17964,"date":"2016-02-18T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=17964"},"modified":"2023-12-17T23:50:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T23:50:51","slug":"the-valentines-for-blobfish-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=17964","title":{"rendered":"Presenting the Valentines for Blobfish Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=17883\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Our Valentine for Blobfish Contest<\/a>, in which local <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-34391\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/blob.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"407\" \/>librarians read Jess Keating&#8217;s stellar nonfiction book <em>Pink Is for Blobfish<\/em> to K-4 classes and then had students write Blobfish a Valentine, is now complete. <span id=\"OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION\">As heartwarming as it was funny, not to mention educational in every sense of the word, the contest was a broad and satisfying success.<\/span><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nAfter an initial reaction of &#8220;ewww&#8221; upon seeing the Blobfish, the young scholars\u00a0 found an empathy for him developing as they learned that he had been labeled as the world&#8217;s ugliest creature. This empathy deepened as they watched\u00a0 Keating&#8217;s special Blobfish video she made after hearing about the contest.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UmnlxnyMtfo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imgXI3ivKblobvideo.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" align=\"left\" border=\"2\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nNothing can truly prepare a person for judging hundreds of worthy Blobfish Valentine cards. Two comments overheard while the kids were making their Valentines come into play here. One child wondered, &#8220;How are they going to get my card to the Blobfish?&#8221; A great question. All I could think to do, as the judge, was wade out into the sea, read them to the Blobfish, and carefully gauge his reactions. Another child commented, &#8220;He wouldn&#8217;t be so ugly if he would just smile.&#8221; What I can tell you is that these cards meant the world to him, and made him smile again and again.<br \/>\nAll right, then \u2013 here are the Award Winners and a few runners-up. I&#8217;ll also include a link to a larger gallery of runners-up and honorable mentions. Finally, the contest took on a life of its own<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=17883&amp;cpage=1#comment-261892\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> here in the ShelfTalker comments<\/a>. There were some fabulous entries made and the Awards for them will be delivered below.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imgseEwBYcascadewinner.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">The amazing Cascade Brook School winner! Awwww.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imglhewANahswinner.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">The astonishing Academy Hill School winner!<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imgBm956dstrongthirdwinner.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">The Strong School winner! Blobfish is thrilled to be your friendfish.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imgzdaJCrmallettwinner.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">The Mallett School winner! The goo does protect him!<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imgC7CokZphillips4winner.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"557\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">The thoughtful Phillips School Winner!<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/img2d98jdphillips2ndwinner.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">The Phillips School First Grade winner! Blobfish wants to meet you in real life too!<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imgfGgPrgcascadeblobfish1.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"466\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">A fantastic Cascade Brook Runner Up!<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/50486659758\/photos\/ms.c.eJxl0LkNA0EMQ9GOjJVEXf03toYDB1~;pAzEc0R7L2Nma8N7O~;dhfLF2QEaUb4jZ4x~;1kSsy0U5Jd3wQzW5B4lmJJcYqVoSt0XlYc4T5RdYRdMl4a565Y~;kdnVRk31GlXDkXcR7nMNC9VG2QDsl6~;NV4qr3qi.bps.a.10153989680619759.1073741831.50486659758\/10153989683279759\/?type=3&amp;theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belldandy.booksite.com\/blimages\/ckupload\/imgit3QKnblobfishalbumcover.PNG\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" border=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Just click the Valentine above to see the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/50486659758\/photos\/a.10153989680619759.1073741831.50486659758\/10153989683279759\/?type=3&amp;theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> full gallery of contest winners and runners-up<\/a>. Adorable!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">And finally, our winners for the ShelfTalker submissions go to the amazing entry by Karin T and to our redoubtable runner-up from Sarah Rockel. Prizes are on their way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The adorable beyond belief results of our Blobfish Valentine contest are on display!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34392,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17964\/revisions\/34392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}