You Gotta Love a Book With This Title!

Hey, guys, Carl again. I saw this book yesterday and had to read it. How could you pass up a book called The Stinky Sneakers Contest (by Julie Ann Peters)? It' s really good. Two guys, Earl and Damian, are best friends and do a lot of things, like bicycle racing, together but Damian always cheats to win. Then they find out that the Feetfirst shoe company will hold a Stinky Sneaker contest, with a prize of ten years' worth of free sneakers going to the boy with the stinkiest shoe! Damian thinks he's going to get the prize because he's stuffed old liverwurst and cheese in his shoes. Is that fair? Could you stay friends with someone who cheats like that? But could you cut your best friend out of your life? This is a quick read, a fun book, and a good story about friendship. (Sorry, there's no picture available)

I also read another cool book, Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements. Ted Hamond is a boy growing up in a small town in western Nebraska. The town is so small, in fact, that the school has only one room because there are only nine students! Ted's life suddenly changes when he sees a girl's face in the window of an abandoned farmhouse. Ted loves mysteries and tries to find who the girl is. He finds lots of surprises and has to make some hard choices. I read this book in one day because I had to know what happened to Ted and this mysterious girl. You'll really like this one.

Darth Bill says he's on vacation for a week, but I think he's hiding on Tatooine so he doesn't have to put on that dress when all you Jedi readers write to us. Don't worry--I'll send the bounty hunters to find him.