Hello all, it is I Darth Bill (to great applause),

Things have been wild and crazy here at the library with all our summer activities and summer reading, but nothing I can't handle as the force is strong with me (oh yea!!!). On Friday Night, 7/20/07, we celebrated here at ImaginOn the release of the last Harry Potter Book The Deathly Hallows. It was awesome!!!! We started events at 10:00 p.m. and had everything from Quidditch, the Sorting Hat, Harry Potter Video Games, Living Portraits, movies and tons more. We also had people all over the place dressed up as their favorite characters from the Harry Potter Books and at 12:01 a.m. we let people who wanted the book purchase it. Again it was great fun.

Well enough about that, let's talk about a really cool book I recently read:

Roanoke: The Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller - Ever heard about the true story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke? In 1857, John White led colonists to North America to establish the first permanent English settlement at Roanoke in what is now a location on the coast of North Carolina. This endeavor was supported by both Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth and was filled with promise; yet from the very start was doomed to failure. The colony was established at Roanoke in 1857 and then abandoned by England. When ships finally returned to Roanoke in 1590, no sign of any of the settlers was found. All that remained was a run down wooden fort with one word carved in it: CROATOAN. For years what happened to the settlers remained a mystery, but now the evidence has been uncovered and the mystery revealed. Read Roanoke - The Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller for a fascinating account of what really happened. This non-fiction story is more bizarre than any fiction book you will read.

Return of Lord Vader

Hey guys, look who's back:

Hey it's me Mikie a.k.a Lord Vader checking in again. I just read Pokemon The Movie 3: Spell of the Unown - movie adaptation by Tracey West. It is very cool. I love Entei, he is a fire type Pokemon. He uses cool attacks like fire blast. Ash who is a Pokemon trainer has to save his mom. Don't look at the pictures in the middle of the book though or it will give the ending away before you get to read it all.

I know Darth Bill will be happy to see Lord Vader back again. I'm sure he'd like to say something, but lately he's been as busy as Han Solo flying through an asteroid field. So have I. We'll try to get some more posts up this week. I want to talk about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series when we do. In the meantime, if you want to see my review of The Lightning Thief, the first book in the series, click here.

Carl

The Big Sith Checks In!

Hey all you Sith readers (especially Darth Bill),

You'll be pleased that none other than Lord Vader himself has posted comments! (Dom dom dom dum de dum dum de dum) Here you go:


My name is Mikie - a.k.a. Lord Vader. I just read a cool book called Human Body Revealed by Dr. Sue Davidson and Ben Morgan. It has great pictures and I learned a lot. There was even information in there that my mom didn't know.

Here's another one:

It's Mikie again. I originally posted this in the blog on blogspot but it was my first one and I don't know if it goes to the library blog automatically. This book is called Deltora Quest: The Forests of Silence. I really liked this book a lot. It is by Emily Rodda. The Wennbar is my favorite character. The book is about a quest in the Forests of Silence. The heroes are looking for gems that were taken from a belt. With the stones the belt helps keep peace, but the Shadow Lord had the stones taken from the belt and hidden in scary places.

I think other boys would like this book.


Well done! Come in and get your free book. (Do you think I'm going to tell Lord Vader he can't have a free book?) Mikie brings up a good point, one that I mentioned in our introduction--Nonfiction is not boring!

Speaking of The Human Body Revealed (which we just happen to have copies of at PLCMC), there is a great exhibit at Discovery Place called Body Worlds. Check out Discovery Place's home page here to find out more. We have a good collection of books about the body here at the library in Imaginon to go with the Body Worlds exhibit. In fact, if you go to see it at Discovery Place, come here to Imaginon afterward and get some of these books!


Let me answer a question for Mikie (LV) and all you other guys out there. Whenever you send us a comment, it automatically goes to a place where we can view it first. It has to be that way--as you Sith and Jedi and all readers know, there are a lot of real villains out there and we have to check things out before we publish them. So, if you don't see your comment right away, don't panic. We'll get it up soon. One more thing--on most blogs, the only place to read comments is in that place marked "comments" under each post. Darth Bill and I wanted to put your comments in our posts so that everybody could read them and comment back on them. Besides, you guys write great stuff and we want to put it right out there!
So let's hear it--anyone else read any good nonfiction lately? And where are all you Jedi? Are you going to let the Sith get all the glory?
Carl

New Posts from the Sith!

Hey guys! This is Carl. Darth Bill is out this weekend (supervising construction of the Death Star, no doubt), but he would be pleased to see not just one but TWO comments from Sith readers! The first is from Trevor B., alias Smith the Sith:


Hi, I am Smith the Sith. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT (that was my light saber, sorry it misfired!) Dare to prepare ! I just read Teen Titans: Go! Ready for Action! and my friends and I used the Tween Titans song as our theme song. "When there's trouble, you know who to call...Tween Titans"! It's a great book.


The second is from Jay B. (Evil Sith II):

I am second most evil Sith around because my plans are to rule the world and destroy the Jedis. I will rule by reading evil books like Shivers: A Ghastly Shade of Green. In this book, Jason goes on vacation to the Everglades and the plants almost destroy him. MWWWHAHAHA (evil Sith laugh)! I will soon rule the world with my evil knowledge!


There you go--2 comments today! Good work, guys! (or should I say "evil work"?) Come in and get your free books! Remember, the first ten boys to post to this blog get a free book. (Disclaimer notice: This blog is open to every guy, no matter where you live. If you live too far away to get the free books, don't worry--we'd still love to hear from you)


On a totally different note, how many of you went to a Harry Potter party last night? Did you get a copy of the new book? We had a great party here at Imaginon (though I couldn't be there). Bill was there and maybe he'll tell you about it. If we have some pictures, maybe we'll post some too.

So let's hear it, guys, Harry Potter fans, Sith, and Jedi!

Revenge of the Sith

Hi all (Especially Obi-wan Andrew),

It is I, your humble Sith Lord Bill (well, as humble as I can be). Wow, things have been crazy lately, but I now find some time to post to the blog. The first thing I would like everyone to know about is a Bone Graphic Novel Book Club that I will start hosting here at ImaginOn. The first meeting will be on August 1 at 7:00 p.m. If you have not read Bone yet, man, you need to check it out. I did a review of the first book in the series way back in our first posting (6/7/07). I love this series!!!!!! Anyway, registration for anyone 8-12 years old starts on 7/19/07. The meeting will last approximately one hour (actually we will just be hanging out and talking about the first two books: Out of Boneville [Vol. 1] and The Great Cow Race [Vol.2], eating some tasty snacks, drinking some fine beverages and just having fun - no serious stuff allowed). If you need copies of any of the books in advance just let me know (I have a secret stash). There will also be "meetings" on August 9 (about: Eyes of the Storm (Vol.3) and The Dragonslayer (Vol. 4)) and August 16 (about: Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border (Vol. 5)). So if you like comics and/or graphic novels sign-up and come hang out!!!!! All are welcome!

OK, as everyone knows, a proper Sith, besides thinking of ways to rule the universe, is always reading and guys I have recently read some really cool books. The first one I want to talk about is:

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman - This is the first book in the trilogy called "His Dark Materials" and it is intense. This is a great fantasy book set on an Earth kind of like ours in some ways and much different in others. The main character in this first book is Lyra and she lives at Jordan College with the teachers. All the humans on this earth have Daemons which are animals with which they share a special link. A link that is so strong that if one dies so does the other. Well, without getting into too much detail, children in what would be England in our world start to disappear and many think that something called the Gobblers are responsible. One of Lyra's friends named Roger is abducted and this starts Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon (who can change into many different types of animals), on a quest to find him and all the other children who have been abducted and taken somewhere up near the North Pole. In this story Lyra and Pantalaimon meet many different creatures and other humans. One of the coolest characters they meet is Iorek Byrnison, a Polar Bear that is super intelligent and wears the finest armor. Trust me on this one and check it out.

Another really cool book I recently finished is:

The Awakening (Volume 1 of the Quantum Prophecy) byMichael Carroll - No one really knows why or how it happened, but ten years ago all the superheroes and supervillians on Earth disappeared. There was one last great battle in which superheros such as Diamond (the ability to change her form into a solid diamond like structure), Paragon (no real superpowers but highly intelligent and athletic) and Titan (possessing the power of flight, super strength and invulnerability) and supervillians such as Dixon (touch toxic and deadly to others) and Ragnarok (super genuis with the ability to build amazingly deadly machines) participated in then disappeared, never to be heard from again. Now ten years later Colin Wagner has just seen his best friend Danny Copper save a girl's life from an approaching car by moving at super speed. What's more, lately Colin has been experiencing things he cannot explain, such as super hearing and strength. What is going on and what is happening to these two boys? Read and find out.

Well I gotta get in my Tie-Fighter now and get back to work on that new Death Star so I can take over the Earth (Hahahahahahahahaha). Take it easy guys,

Darth Bill

Auuugghhh! I forgot to put in a title for today's entry!

All right, guys, here's another mystery for you--only this one's funny. It's Key Lardo by Bruce Hale. Chet Gecko is the top detective at Emerson Hicky Elementary. Everyone knows that--so why does this new kid, this penguin, tell every one that he's a top-notch detective? Can this new guy solve the case when a classmate disappears? And what will Chet do when the penguin disappears and everyone blames him? Read and find out--and be prepared to have a lot of fun!

Don't forget that we still have more free books to give away to the next 8 boys who comment on our blog. And we still don't know if the Sith or the Jedi read more books. So let's hear it, boys and citizens of the galaxy!

Return Comment of the Jedi

Hey all you Jedi and Sith across the galaxy (and especially you, Darth Bill),

Obi-wan Andrew has answered your challenge! Here is his latest comment:

Hi Darth Bill and Carl,
I haven't gotten around to reading the free book you gave me yet because I'm reading a book I checked out. It's called "Star Wars, Jedi Quest: The School of Fear" by Jude Watson. One of the Senator's sons is kidnapped, and Anakin and another padawan named Ferus must go to the school to gather information to save him. It's pretty good so far, and I think Star Wars fans would enjoy it.
Another series I like is "Andrew Lost". I started reading it when my mom found it for me at the library. I know there are at least 15 books in the series. I finished number 14 last week, and I'm searching for number 15 now. In number 1, Andrew and his sister, Judy, and his robot, Thud, are normal sized people. It's Show and Tell at school, and Andrew builds a shrinking device to shrink garbage. But it backfires and shrinks him, Judy and Thud! Some of the other really good book titles include: Andrew Lost in Time, Andrew Lost in the Garden, Andrew Lost in the Ice Age, & Andrew Lost in the Garbage. I think the funniest one is Andrew Lost With the Bats. They are stuck in a bat cave and Thud gives out information that Judy doesn't like. The more you read, the funnier it gets! Have a great July 4th holiday, and if you're not the driver, then read in the car!
Obi-wan-Andrew

PS Darth Bill--
The Sith will never overcome the Jedi.

So what do you think, all you Jedi and Sith and readers? Got any favorite Star Wars books? Have you read the Andrew Lost books? Any other favorite reads?