The Golden Cowbell

Back in June I received notice from a librarian at the K. Weldon Library (International School of Geneva, La Châtaigneraie Campus) that How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse was the winner of a Golden Cowbell award. Which--cool! I am delighted to win awards, and delighted that Rory is a hit with a) kids at all and b) kids who don't necessarily speak English as a first language. So yay! 

After a very long journey, with a stop off at JABberwocky, it arrived. 

I was expecting a cute little tourist-sized cowbell, the kind my mother has hanging on her wall from the trip we took to Switzerland was I was...10? I think. This, however, is not that cowbell. 

On that trip to Switzerland, I remember waking up in the hotel to the sound of cows being driven up the actual street outside to their mountain pastures. They wore bells, and those bells were very loud and distinctive. Functional bells

This is one of those bells. It is also quite lovely. I smelled the leather strap when I opened the box. The bell itself is heavy and shiny. The brass fittings on the strap are very shiny (the astute observer may see me reflected in the cow as I took this photo). I was delighted to receive the award and now I am doubly, triply, extremely delighted to receive the bell itself. 

Thank you, students who voted for Rory!