One More List

The great Ms. Yingling

Hey, reader guys all over this land, the Iron Guy is pleased to present to you, in honor of this blog's 10th anniversary, one more list of books that guys would like. This list, however, comes from our good friend Ms. Yingling, a middle school librarian up in Ohio. She has been a good friend to this blog almost from the beginning and has recommended so many good reads that I couldn't begin to remember them all. She also runs a very cool blog that features a Guy Friday. She is so great, in fact, that the Iron Guy gave her the highest award he could possibly give and made her an Honorary Guy. (which gives her the right to make obnoxious noises at sporting events, crack all the dumb jokes she wants and eat insane amounts of food with no nutritional value)
Anyway, I asked if she would send me a list of books boys would like and this is it:

John David Anderson. Keep an eye on this author, who seems to be trying his hand at every genre there is. From the sad but funny Ms. Bixby's Last Day to the video game inspired Insert Coin to Continue, he never disappoints. 

Tom Greenwald. Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading series, plus his other titles. I also really liked his newest book, The Real Us. 

Thatcher Heldring. For sports books, I like all of Thatcher's books, especially the recently released The Football Girl. What would YOU do if your girlfriend was trying out for YOUR football team? 

Anthony Horowitz- Stormbreaker, especially since book 11, Never Say Die, is coming out in October. 

David Lubar. From Lawn Weenies to Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, Lubar has something for boys of all ages. The added bonus is that adults don't seem to like his stuff, so it must be good!

Chirs Lynch. Chris has been writing for a long time, and his WWII and Vietnam series are filled with riveting details of military combat. 

Dan Poblocki. My new go to for scary ghost stories. The House on Stone Throw's Island even has evil Nazi ghosts!

Darren Shan. Cirque du Freak. While this series has been out for a while, it's still popular because it has great fights between the vampires and the evil vampaneze. Shan also has the great Zom-B series. 

Jordan Sonnenblick. For really fantastic writing style that is also guaranteed to make you snort through your nose with laughter, you don't have to go any further than Zen and the Art of Faking It or Notes from the Midnight Driver. 


All right! Thanks, Ms Yingling! This is a great list and I know boys will like them. (please keep in mind, guys, that Ms. Yingling is a middle school librarian and some of these authors write both kids' and Young Adult fiction) Have any of you boys read any of these? Have you enjoyed them? Then write in and let us know. Both the Iron Guy and the Honorary Guy will thank you!

Most Memorable Books From the Last 10 Years--Part Two

OK, guys, you've seen Part One. Here is another list. Since there are so many, I'm simply going to list them without any comments and I'll put them into three categories. Look them up; our library system has plenty. If you want to learn more about them, check out the Labels section under this post. As I said in the last post, these may not necessarily be the best but they are what has impressed the Iron Guy the most over the last 10 years. (and, yes, other reader guys have enjoyed them as well!)

Most Memorable Nonfiction

The Boys in the Boat

Stubby the War Dog

Lincoln: A Photobiography

Howard Bryant's Legends books

The Last River

Most Memorable Graphic Novels

The Bone series

The Fangbone series

The Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series

The Lunch Lady series

Funniest

Big Nate

The Alvin Ho series

The Brixton Brothers series

The Boys vs Girls series

The audiobook version of Science Fair

OK, once again, what do you think of this list? Do you agree this is a truly awesome list that should be remembered for the next 1000 years or is it the most bogus list ever assembled? And did I leave anything out? (Like the Wimpy Kid? There a good reason for that too)

Write in and let me know what you think! Hopefully, there are a few of your favorites in here. And if not, maybe you'll find something that will become a new favorite of yours!

Most Memorable Books From the Last 10 Years--Part One

Hey, everybody, I appreciate all the kind comments on the last post. If no one minds, I will take the next two or three posts to talk about some of my favorite reads from the last 10 years. Plus, I'll post lists from a couple of blogging friends. Now the Iron Guy has read a lot of books over that time and could probably pull up a list ten pages long but I will spare you that. Instead, I'm going to tell you about the books that jump immediately to mind. You know how it is--if someone asked you, "What are your favorite movies?" you would come with a bunch without even thinking about it. Same thing here. If you asked me, "What have been your favorite reads over the last ten years?",
this this is what I would say immediately:

(PS--These aren't in any order and the sizes of the pictures don't mean I liked one better than any other)




The first Percy Jackson series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)

What can I say? Boys everywhere LOVE these books!! Maybe my top favorite of all.








The Barnstormers/Sluggers series

Haven't read them? You should. A really unique blend of baseball, history and fantasy.
(For some reason, they changed the name of the series from "Barnstormers" to "Sluggers" halfway through the series)






The Copernicus Legacy (and The Copernicus Archives)

Man. Oh. Man. Thrills, more thrills, mystery, time travel and one of the most memorable villains ever!







The Yearling

Possibly the best book none of you boys have read. An epic story that grabbed me like few others have. A great story about growing from boyhood to mature manhood.


Treasure Island



The best pirate story ever written! Yeah, it's from a long time ago but the language isn't much different from today's and I bet you wouldn't have much trouble with it.




The Leviathan trilogy


Walking mechanical war machines, genetically-altered animals as war machines, alternate history of WWI--how great is this??





The Brixton Brothers Mysteries

Good mysteries and funny, funny, funny! And the audiobook versions by the great Arte Johnson are terrific.







The Boys vs Girls series

These also are funny, funny, funny but also--well, there are no big dramatics, no space battles, no evil wizards but one of the best stories I've ever read about boys (and girls) living out their everyday lives, going to school, getting into or out of trouble and doing things we all could relate to. I want to live in this town! Plus, the ending gave me the strongest reaction I've had to any of these series.


OK, I'm not saying these are the best of the last 10 years but they are the ones that I've enjoyed the most. Do you agree? Or not? Have I left something out?
(Like Harry Potter? There's a good reason) If you agree with this list or if you don't, write a comment in the Comments section under this post. We love to hear what other people think!

Ten Years and Still Here!!

Yesterday the Iron Guy celebrated a historic event and guess what--today is a historic event as well. Well, maybe it's not as important to world history as yesterday's event, which was D-Day, but hopefully it's been important to some of you reader guys out there. And maybe some of you grownups as well. I'm referring to---

The 10-year anniversary of the

Blog!!

The first book I reviewed on this blog--and it's still terrific!

Yes, it may be hard to believe but the first time the Iron Guy ever posted on this blog was on June 7, 2007. You can read the original post here and guess what--you can still find most of those books in our library system! And they're just as good now as they were back then.

This was when blogging was a relatively new thing in the cyber world. In fact, the whole cyber universe had undergone a big revolution in 2006 with the Web 2.0. Before then, the Internet was slow (do any of you grownups remember using Netscape?) and you couldn't do a lot of things we don't even think about now. So I got excited about blogging, especially about blogging about books that boys would like.  (there was very little of that then)  And, rather than create a static website, I wanted to do a blog in which people could comment and boys could send in reviews of books they liked so that other boys could not only find good stuff to read but also realize that there are other boys out there who also think that reading is very cool. 

Carl, Zach and Bill back in the day

Back then, I worked with my good friend Bill. He was my coblogger. (you'll see his first reviews on the original post) Bill was a lot of fun, wrote good reviews and was also a Sith lord. After a while our good friend Zack, who worked at a different library location, came on board. He also wrote cool reviews, was a lot of fun and was a Jedi master. Once we all read and reviewed the same book together, sometimes did we did programs together and sometimes there was Sith/Jedi taunting. (that meant I had to bring balance to the Force) Zach and Bill have gone on to other things and places but the memories remain. (and I still hear from them from time to time)

Ah, memories!

There's a whole lot more I could say but it would take waaaayyyyy too much time and space, so I'll break it up and post about favorite books, memories and such throughout the month of June. In the meantime, I intend to continue to carry this blog's original mission, which was (and still is) to be "A place for boys to find terrific books and tell other boys about great reading."

Thanks for being there and I hope that you'll continue to come along with me. 

What Was D-Day?

Wow.

What a story!

Guys, I know all of you like the Who Was... and the What Was... series of books. And with good reason. They're informative, they're interesting and they're quick reading. They tell really good stories from true life and the writing always makes the story flow so well that you want to keep reading to the end without stopping. Well, this one, What Was D-Day by Patricia Brennan Demuth, is even better than most of the others because of the story it tells. It's about an amazing and incredible event. D-Day. The invasion of Europe in World War II. And most of the people who participated weren't that much older than a lot of you boys!

We all know who Hitler was and why we had to liberate Europe from him. But he had no intention of letting the good guys stop him. Of course, he knew that one day we'd come ashore fighting, so he built bunkers, laid mines and put up barbed wire over many beaches in what he called "Fortress Europe" to halt the inevitable invasion at the start. BUT---he didn't know where or when that would be. That's where this incredible story begins. There was a lot of planning involved, including a lot of ways to fool the Nazis. Wait until you read about the inflatable "tanks" or the spy named Garbo! Then the day came--and it seemed that everything that could have gone wrong went really wrong. The whole invasion--and the chance to liberate Europe--seemed doomed until some brave men took desperate chances. Read the stories of First Lieutenant William Moody, who climbed up a steep cliff using only his bayonet, or General Norman "Dutch" Cota who left the safety of his ship to personally lead the troops to the enemy positions.

This is a great story and deserves to be remembered, especially today, June 6, the day that it happened. If you've never read about D-Day, prepare to be moved by this heroic story. Or if you've heard or read about it for a long time, you'll still learn things you never knew. Just like I did. This is one truly terrific read and you won't forget it. In fact, you'll understand these group of soldiers became known as the Greatest Generation.

Fun, Weird and True Sports Facts

Second day of June greetings, everyone! It's a new month, so the Iron Guy thought he'd get back to his resolution of telling you about more sports books. And I've got a couple of doozies today! These are great fun and you can read them quickly. (they're what I call Good Quick Reads) Both of them are about weird and funny facts from sports and many of them will either make you laugh or shake your head and say, "No! Not possible! Nooo! Noooooo!!!" Or maybe you'll do both.

The first one is from the famous Dan Gutman, who has not only written the My Weird School series but is also a big sports fan. And here he combines both in one book. It's My Weird School Fast Facts: Sports. In this one, A. J. and Andrea tell us amazing but absolutely true brief stories and facts from baseball, football, basketball, hockey and other sports. For example, you could find out:

• Which sport was played on the moon?
• Why do NASCAR drivers lose 10-15 pounds during each race?
• What country trained bears to play hockey?
• Who was the shortest NBA player ever? (hint--he used to play for the Charlotte Hornets!)

If you like My Weird School (and what guy doesn't?), like to learn new things (and what guy doesn't?) and have a lot of fun (ditto), then you need to find this book!

Then we have the National Geographic Kids Weird but True Sports: 300 Wacky Facts About Awesome Athletes book. It has a much simpler format--pages with eye-catching graphics or photos and on or three odd and fun sports facts on each page. And what wacky facts you'll learn!

• "You can watch ostrich races in South Africa"
• "Runner Fauja Singh completed a marathon at the age of 101"
• "U.S. Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were all former cheerleaders" (you'll also learn that all cheerleaders used to be guys!)

And wait until you see the photo of the guy riding a unicycle on the Great Wall of China!
So, guys, check these out, have a few chuckles and find out some things you never knew before!

PS--there is one inacuracy. The National Geographic book says that Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. That story is an often-repeated myth. The truth is that 15-year Michael was only 5'10" and too short to make the varsity team, so he went on the JV team. The next year, however, he had a 4-inch growth spurt and make the varsity team. And after that, of course, went on to make basketball history. So if you don't believe something in one of these books, go and do the research. That's what MANLY MEN do!