Awesome surprise in the mail!

This will require some explaining.

Back in February, I read a post on Carrie Ryan's blog (author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, both of which I have reviewed). Here is the post from her blog:

http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2010/02/pre-ordering-autographed-copies-of-dead.html

Since I was going to pick up the book on the release date (but ended up getting it earlier, so lucky!) and didn't feel like waiting for it to ship from the states, I decided to send off for a bookplate. I wrote her a note telling her how much I and my class loved the book and how I couldn't wait for the sequel (I sent this off in February before the second book had come out). I didn't even know if she would send anything Canada way (cause we always get the short end of the stick in things like that), so I wasn't expecting anything to come of it, but I got the mail today and received this! Click on the pic to see a more detailed look. She sent the bookplate as I originally requested, but she also sent a little note thanking me for my original note, as well as some bookmarks with images from the covers of The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, and some cool little "Eat. Prey. Love." stickers (the phrase of the new marketing campaign for her books).

This is really awesome, especially since I wasn't expecting it. I think I might save the bookplate until the third book comes out and decide which of the three to put it in. Carrie Ryan was already one of my favourite YA authors simply for writing amazing books, but this makes her go up a notch in my opinion. So if you're reading this, thank you Carrie Ryan for making my day! If anyone reading my blog likes her books, or if you haven't and would like to read an intelligently written series that deals with zombies (first read the books), then mail a request for an autographed copy or a bookplate off to the author using the information in the blog post I linked to above.