Monday, March 23, 2009

The Elite Eight

The first round is over and, boy, did we have a couple of close ones! I'll show the results in just a minute but let me tell you something first. I made some paper brackets here at Imaginon so that guys could vote while in the library. It's really handy, especially when school groups come. Well, last week we had 3 guys use those paper ballots and those three guys made a difference. Here you go:

The J.K. Rowling/Kurtis Scaletta bracket was almost an upset. Rookie author Kurtis led in the early voting!! It was like the Pittsburg/East Tennessee State game this weekend, where it looked like #16-seed ETSU would upset #1-ranked Pittsburg. In the final voting, however, it was:
J.K. Rowling 25 online votes + 3 paper votes
Kurtis Scaletta 20 online votes

In the opposite bracket:
Rick Riordan 46 online votes + 1 paper vote + 3 more points for a review
Suzanne Collins 15 + 2

In another exciting contest:
Helen Hemphill and Jeanne DuPrau were tied at 13 votes each. The paper ballots came in and Helen Hemphill got 1 vote and Jeanne DuPrau got 2!!! So she won by one vote! (always remeber that your vote does count!)

In other brackets:
Jeff Smith 5 + 3
Jay Piscopo 19

Dave Barry 8 + 2 ///////////////////Gordon Korman 13 + 1
Jeff Kinney 15 + 1////////////////// Dan Gutman 7 + 2

Kaza Kingsley 19 + 2///////////////// Neil Gaiman 18 + 1
Jon Scieszka 11 + 1////////////////// Jenny Nimmo 9 + 2

Yes, that bracket was a heartbreaker for Helen Hemphill fans, especially since she emailed me on Friday and said that she'd send some T-shirts and signed books as prizes!! Maybe it would have made a difference if I'd said something. Anyway, the votes are in and we move on to the Elite Eight. That means that the winner in one bracket will go against the winner in the bracket below (not in the bracket directly across, as I mistakenly said last Monday)

And those brackets are:

J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter) vs///////////Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson, The 39 Clues) vs
Jeanne DuPrau (City of Ember series)////Jay Piscopo (Capt'n Eli graphic novels)

Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) vs///Gordon Korman (the Island Trilogy) vs
Kaza Kinglsey (Erec Rex series)////////Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book, Coraline)

Looks like we have another action-packed week of voting ahead! You have until noon Saturday to vote (and you can vote for more than one author at a time). Don't forget that we have paper ballots here at Imaginon. And we also have paper book review forms. Your local library may have them too. If they don't, ask them to call me (Carl) and I'll send them out. Remember that your author will get 3 more points for each review of one their books that you send. PLUS, you will be in the running for prizes. The three guys who send in the most reviews of books by these authors (J. K. Rowling, Kurtis Scaletta, Rick Riordan, Suzanne Collins, Helen Hemphill, Jeanne DuPrau, Jeff Smith, Jay Piscopo, Dave Barry, Jeff Kinney, Gordon Korman, Dan Gutman, Kaza Kingsley, Jon Scieszka, Neil Gaiman, or Jenny Nimmo) will get a choice of signed t-shirts and books by Kaza Kingsley, signed books and t-shirts by Helen Hemphill, or your pick of graphic novels and/or books from our fabulous giveaway collection. (Yes, I changed the prize list when I heard about Helen Hemphill's prizes. And, yes, you can write reivews by the authors that didn't get into the Elite Eight) So vote for your faves, send in those reviews, and make this round one as exciting as the last one!

Carl

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so bummed! I saw the balloting was closed and didn't know about paper ballots! Oh, well. I got the books and T-shirts off to you guys yesterday. Have a great tournament and keep reading! HH

Anonymous said...

This is for Gordon Korman.

I think his best book is schooled, where a hippie goes to a public school and greatly influences his students.
This not only has a deep embedded msessage but it is a vastly interesting book.
My favorite part is where the main character saves the bus driver by evading the cops and driving the bus to the hospital. He then asks why everybody is congratulating him for driving the bus, but not how the bus driver is.

Gordon Korman Rules!!!
Andre the Giant from Guysread