Bookmark Him and Write His Speeches

We couldn’t help but scratch our heads recently when we received an interesting email from people soliciting bookmarks for a Chicago-area celebrity bookmark auction. It began innocent enough but the message soon took an odd turn:

We...would LOVE it if John could sign a bookmark for us to auction off. It would be great if he could make the bookmark, but if you already have one he could sign and send that's great too. All proceeds go directly to our programs that teach adults the joys of literacy.

We think a lot of people would love it if John could sign anything, let alone a bookmark. The only such item we’ve ever seen is one released by Dial in the early 1990s promoting the “mysterious worlds of John Bellairs.” There may have been some variations as we've heard of one that said "chillers" or something.

In all seriousness, there is more about the event online (www.bookmarkauction.org) and the sponsoring organization (www.literacychicago.org). It sounds like a worthy and exciting cause...just not one John will be able to participate in.

What would you do if you could create a Bellairsian bookmark? Got an ideas?