We Have Winners!!!

It's gone right down to the buzzer but we do have the winners! Oh, man, what an exciting finish!! Just like a championship game in which the game is decided in the last few seconds, the March Madness Slam Dunk Contest ends with a flurry of shots that leaves everyone amazed! Here we go!

First one on the court is the awesome AXEL SIMONE:

i have read, this book is not good for you.it is by pseudonymous bosch. cass' mom is kidnapped by the evil chef senor hugo while trying to rescue her mom she runs innto the midnight sun. [ouch that must hurt.] this is 1 of the funniest books ever. i loved it. i recommend it to everyone. Bye

i have read antsy does time. it is by neal shusterman. i loved it. it is a companion
book to the schwa was here. just like the schwa was here it is really rude. in this book there is a kid named gunnar umlaut who has only 6 months to live so antsy donates a month of his life to gunnar. i recommend it to everyone. Bye

i have read gabriels triumph. it is by alison hart. i loved it. in this book gabriel rides his favorite horse aristo in the saratoga chase. will he win? read to find out. i recommend it to everyone. bye.

i have read witch and wizard. it is by james patterson andgabrielle charbonett. i loved it. it is about whit and wisty allgood when they are accused of beuing a witch and wizard and thrown in prison. irecommend it to everyone. bye.

AXEL gets 6 points; three for his review of Gabriel's Triumph and three for the others.
After AXEL comes Jumpin' Justin B:

I am writing a review on Summer of the Monkeys.
It is about a boy named Jay who had a blue-tick hound named Rowdy and a sister named Daisy who had a crippled right leg. They used to live in Missouri sharecropping then they moved to the middle of the Cherokee Nation. One day he went down in the Ozark river bottoms and Rowdy treed a monkey; then they went to his Grandpa's store. When he got to his Grandpa's store, his Grandpa was sitting on the porch and told him about how a circus train wrecked and the monkeys got loose and there was a reward for the monkeys: two dollars apiece and for one, a hundred dollars. His Grandpa said it was probably one of those monkeys. His Grandpa handed him some traps. Then Daisy started talking about the Old Man of the Mountains, and Jay asked if he were a farmer and Daisy said he didn't have time for any farming because he was too busy taking care of the mountains and little creatures. Jay went back into the bottoms and set the traps out around the tree he saw the monkey in. He placed an apple above each trap and then he saw a little bunch of brush to crawl behind and watch. Before ten minutes was up, he heard monkeys. The monkeys started coming out of everywhere! Before the were about to grab an apple, a chimpanzee (the $100 monkey) came down out of the trees and plopped down in front of the trap. He kept screeching and grunting and telling the monkeys to stay away because it was a trap. He used one of his long arms and grabbed the apples and give them to the little monkeys. It sounded to Jay like the chimpanzee was laughing at Jay. Jay tried again, and a similar thing happened. The he went off to a spring he had found, got a drink, then Rowdy started barking and looked up on a tree limb; there sat the $100 monkey with his gunnysack, traps, and lunch. He got his bean shooter out, put a rock in the shooter, and shot the monkey where his belly button would have been. Then the chimpanzee sics all the monkeys on Jay. He doesn't look for a trail, he just runs! He runs through briers and tears his clothes. Finally he finds his way back home. Then he goes to his Grandpa's store again and talks about how he had been fooled. His Grandpa says he has something that might help: a net with a yellow ring to open the net and a blue ring to close it. He goes to his house and tries the net out on their old gander, catches him, and he kept squirming. Daisy comes around and calls for their mom. The gander keeps squirming, and Jay opens the net, but the gander's still stuck. Daisy and their mom finally untangle him, and he flew off. Jay said he was probably clear off into Arkansas by now. That night, Jay and his dad dug a hole, tested it out for how the hole would fit Jay and Rowdy. The next day, they went out to the hole, put the net out, covered it with leaves, put an apple on the net, then crawled in the hole to wait. They waited for what seemed like an hour. Finally, they hear monkeys. Two little monkeys went for the apple; then he closed the net, crawled out, and started going away. The big monkey and all the little monkeys showed their teeth and started swinging after him. They caught up and bit Jay and Rowdy all over. The big monkey slipped down and let the two little monkeys out. Jay decides to make friends with Jimbo, the chimpanzee, and after a big storm, he goes to check on the monkeys. Jay found them all huddled up in a hole in the bank. One appeared to be hurt, and Jay took care of them all. Jimbo and the other monkeys followed Jay back to his house and he led them into the corn crib. The owners of the circus came and got the money and gave them free passes for life to the circus and the reward money. Jay took that money and some money his grandparents had been saving and gave it to help Daisy's leg.
It's a great book!

And, in a stunning finale, bouncin' Brian B slams in a bunch of reviews:

Today I'm reviewing Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. It has 224 pages and is about a kid named Greg Heffley who has to survive all the mishaps that occurs to him lifting weights and building a haunted house to building a giant snowman to make it into the Guiness Book of World Records.This is a good book for everyone.

I read Long Shot for Paul by Matt Christopher; it has 155 pages.It is about a disabled kid Paul, his brother Glen, and his sister Judy. Glen and Judy try to get Paul to join the basketball team, but some kids make fun of Paul because he is disabled. His disability is that it takes longer for him to learn things. The coach finally let him join, and he ended up being very crucial to the team. He ended up making the winning basket in becoming the second-place team; last year they finished in the cellar.This is a good book; I recommend it to basketball fans.

I'm reviewing an audio book called Double Fudge by Judy Blume; it lasted 4 hours, 39 minutes.It is about the Hatcher family, Peter, Fudge (real name: Farley Drextel), their mom, their dad, and their dog Turtle. Fudge loves money; he even created his own song..."money, money, money; I love money, money, money". The family decides to go to Washington to see the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. While there, they meet up with their long-lost cousins, the Howie Hatchers of Honolulu, Hawaii. The Howies decide to come to New York where Peter and Fudge live. Then some crazy things happen like the elevator stopping with Fudge, the youngest Howie Hatcher, and Olivia Oscarman (the person who has lived in the apartments the longest).

I'm reviewing the audio book of The Light Princess by George MacDonald; it lasted 1 hour, 30 minutes.When the king has a christening party for his daughter, he forgets to invite one person, his sister. His sister is also a witch, and she decides to go without an invitation. Then she puts some sort of curse on the baby that makes her lose all her gravity and makes her laugh at sad times and happy times. A young prince runs away from his parents, trying to find someone to marry. He walks into a deep forest, and when he comes out, he's at the castle with a beautiful pond by it where the princess is, who is about 18 years old now. He goes swimming with her, and they jump off a cliff and fall into the water. While the princess is in the water, she regains her gravity, but only in the water; when she is out of the water, she loses it again. The wicked sister of the king hears that, so she makes a potion that makes a deadly rare snake, the white snake of darkness. She goes to the cellar, then 100 doors further down. The snake bites the ceiling, which is under the pond, and the water starts to drain. She waits 7 days and 7 nights, and the snake lets go. She picks up the snake and runs through the doors, locking them behind her. In the morning, all the babies are crying, but without tears. Some people find a golden plate at the bottom of the pond, that says if the water ever drains, they must find the hole and have a living sacrifice who would not mind drowning himself to get the water back. The young prince does that because he loves the princess so much; he has one condition: the princess must be by him and look at him while he does it. The king agrees, and the princess goes into a boat. The prince blocks the holes, and the water starts filling up. The princess pulls him out of the water right before he drowns. When she got home, she cried real tears and that gives her her gravity back. They were betrothed immediately, but first she must learn to walk. She learns how to walk, and she is mad at the wicked princess who cursed her. When she hears that her castle collapsed on her because of the water, she feels sorry for her. I liked the book; it's nice.

I read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson with 202 pages. The story is about Jim Hawkins and how he finds a treasure map and goes hunting for treasure with Dr. Livesey and the squire. The squire meets up with Long John Silver, the first mate of Captain Flint the notorious pirate, and LJS is going to be the boat's cook. LJS also added a bunch of other people and got rid of some of the squire's people. Jim Hawkins from inside an apple barrel overhears LJS talking to his people; once they found the treasure, they were going to get rid of all the others. After they get to the island, there is a bunch of sword fights and treasure hunts. Jim meets up with Ben Gunn, one of the original members on the boat with Captain Flint who helped bury the treasure. LJS was supposed to kill all the people who buried the treasure, but he just marooned Gunn. They find the treasure with the help of Gunn, and then they were going to leave all off LJS's people who survived marooned on the island, but Ben Gunn let LJS escape with a bag of gold off a boat.
I had also gone to the play and noticed a few differences.
* The captain gave the treasure map to Jim in the play, but did not give it to him in the book. They had to find it out of his chest.
* Ben Gunn let LJS escape in the book, but in the play Jim Hawkins lets him escape and gives him some gold.
The play shows most the highlights, but the book is more in depth, so I'm not sure which I liked the most.

I read Football Nightmare by Matt Christopher; it has 119 pages.It's about Keith Steadman, who plays wide receiver for the Bucks, the local football team. The last play of the championship game, they are down, and for the game-winning touchdown, the ball is perfectly thrown, but it goes right between Keith's hands. A photographer takes a picture of Keith after the missed play while he's on the ground. After that moment, Keith isn't sure he wants to play football anymore. He keeps thinking about making another bad play like that. After some convincing, he decides to play football some more, but some people are determined to make sure the play is always remembered. He and a teammate who is trying to keep that memory alive must work it out. They eventually work it out and win the first game of the season.I liked this story; it was a good book.

I'm reviewing Hank the Cowdog #51 Case of the Blazing Sky by John R. Erickson. It has 129 pages.It is about Hank the Cowdog and his wanting to eat one of his master's chickens. He ends up getting trapped in the chicken house, and he has to run away from the farm because he thinks he is going to get into a bunch of trouble. He ends up coming back when he sees that a prairie fire is on the loose because of some lightning. He ends up coming back just in time to save the ranch, and they start a backfire to try to stop the prairie fire. It ends up not working, and they start running away. Hank runs into a tree. Then a thunderstorm happens, putting out the fire with the rain.I liked the book. I like the whole series, and this book had some games in the back from The Hank Times, the official newsletter of Hank's Security Force.

I'm reviewing Too Hot to Handle by Matt Christopher, and it has 128 pages. It is about a boy named David Kroft. Baseball runs in the Kroft family: his father is a good baseball player; his uncles also are good; even his brother is a good baseball player. But David struggles with it. When his brother hurts his leg. It's up to him to keep up the family name. This is a good book I recommend it to all.

Brian B gets 11 points today; five for his review of Treasure Island and 6 for the rest. He doubled his score today!! Well done!

WHAM!! SLAM!! We've finished this contest with TWELVE REVIEWS!!! Woo Hoo!! Way to go, men!

AND NOW--the moment you've all been waiting for! The CARLMAN has tallied up the results and it's a close one:

Michael--18 points
Dakota T--19 points
AXEL-25 points
Chandler--8 points
Brian B--22 points
Justin B--7 points
Shannon--3 points
Demitri--9 points
Keegan89--2 points
Josh--9 points

The winners are:

FIRST PLACE--AXEL SIMONE

SECOND PLACE--BRIAN B

THIRD PLACE--DAKOTA T

Congratulations!! Come to the Imaginon library to claim your prizes. Or, if you can't get here, call me at 704-416-4630 and I'll see if I can send it to another library or find a way to mail it or get it to you. (Dakota T, I know you live outside of town. I'll mail it to you)

Very well done, everbody! (and I mean everybody!!) Thanks so much for participating. We had a lot of fun. But don't stop writing in! We really do like to hear from you. It's good to hear what boys are reading and, don't forget, other guys want to know what books are good. You're providing a valuable service. So keep it up!!

Carl