Beverly Cleary's 100th Birthday!

Hey there, all you reader guys. The Iron Guy is very excited about a milestone birthday. On Tuesday, April 12, author Beverly Cleary will celebrate her 100th birthday!! Now just living to 100 is awesome enough but when you think about---

Wait a minute---

Did somebody out there say, "Who's Beverly Cleary?"

Oh, man, have I got something to tell you then!

Beverly Cleary has been one of the most popular authors for kids for a long time. Especially for guys. Her books have entertained guys for many, many years. They are still funny and kids still relate to them. After all, even if they were written way back in the day, they still deal with things kids are dealing with today. Adopting a dog. Seeing that dog go amok in the neighborhood. Finding ways to earn money. Bratty kids in the neighborhood. Families trying to find ways to get by.


And, speaking of bratty kids in the neighborhood, just wait until you meet Ramona Quimby!! 

Yep, Ramona the Pest. Ramona the royal pain. Ramona, possibly the funniest kid in any book you'll ever read. 

But there are plenty of other memorable characters and situations in her books, so if you haven't read any of her books, though I bet several of you already have, I would love to know if you've read any of her books. Iwould really love it if you sent in reviews! And I'm going to give you some incentive. I've got some cool door hangers and I'll give one out to any boy who sends in a review of a Beverly Cleary book. That includes listening to a Beverly Cleary audiobook. (you could see a review of one here)

Yes, indeed, guys, one of these cool door hangers that says, "Discover new trails...Read!" could be yours! Just send me a review of a Beverly Cleary book or audiobook by--well, since her birthday is tomorrow, I'll give you two weeks to send them in. I'll give a door hanger for any review sent in through Saturday, April 23. Got that? Then start reading and reviewing. The Iron Guy and lots of other guys out there are waiting to hear from you!!

Spring Break with Cannons, Another Great Beverly Cleary Audiobook, and Why Nooks Are Cool but Libraries Can Be Better

Howdy Ho, all reader guys everywhere! I'm feeling GREAT today because I just came back from spring break vacation. Saw a lot of cool stuff but one of the best things was Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. It was an especially good time to go because it marked the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. For those who don't know, the CW began on April 12, 1861 when Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard fired his cannons at Union Major Robert Anderson, who was in Fort Sumter. After enduring 34 straight hours of bombardment, Major Anderson surrendered and the Confederates moved in. (Interesting side note--Anderson had been Beauregard's artillery instructor at West Point!) When we got there, they had Confederate reenactors inside, occupying the fort as the real soldiers had done 150 years ago. They gave musket firing demonstrations and artillery drill.(Couldn't fire the real cannons, though.Too bad!) Here I am with Lt. Rhett and his South Carolina gun crew.

Of course, my family never goes on a road trip without lots of books and at least a couple of audiobooks. After that last post about Beverly Cleary audiobooks, I checked out Henry and Beezus and, man, was if funny! There were several times when we laughed out loud. Especially when Henry's dog Ribsy steals the neighbor's main dinner course! Or when Henry tries to make enough money to buy a bike by selling bubble gum. Or when Henry wants to become famous by eating dog food. Or, most especially, when Henry wins a prize no guy would ever want!! Want to know more? Then you gotta check it out!

And one more thing--last Christmas I got a Nook Color, a truly great gift. We took it with us and found that it's a great way to pass time in the car or even when sitting around the house.You can download books, of course, and read a lot of great stuff, but if there's wifi available, you can hook up to the Net. We used it more for reading but actually got on the library's homepage at one point and put The Throne of Fire, the next Kane Chronicles book, on hold! We all agreed that the Nook was a good thing to have along, but I found a couple things irritating. First, there are a lot of books you can't get. I tried to get the second book in the Raising Dragons series by Bryan Davis but they didn't have it. Or ANY of the books in that series! Or any of the Tiger's Apprentice books by Laurence Yep. Or any of the 39 Clues books!! Now how is that possible?? NONE of the 39 Clues books, one of the hottest series around? It was really frustrating not to be able to get things we wanted. The good thing about the library is being able to get the books you want, especially those that are out of print or that the book companies don't think are worth selling anymore.
Secondly, we found out that we'd spent money for things we liked but may never read again. It was fun but now we have to pay the bill for books that we may or might not want to read a second time. That's another advantage of the library; you can get books for free and then turn them back when you're done. Then you don't have extra books cluttering your bookshelves or taking up memory. So, all in all, the Nook is wonderful but the good old library is better in some ways.
What about you? Do any of you have a Nook? Do you like and dislike the same things about it?
And did you read anything good over spring break? If so, write in and tell us! (Just put it in the handy Comments section under this post)

Good Audiobooks for Guys (especially Beverly Cleary)

What's up, all you reader guys in Blogland? Getting ready for spring break? The kids in Charlotte start spring break next week and I bet some of them are planning vacation trips right now. How about YOU?? Are you going anywhere? If so, let me give you one word--audiobooks!! They are great! Pop one in your car's cd player or download one to your player and bam! the car trip becomes a LOT of fun. To see some reviews of audiobooks that I and your fellow reader guys have enjoyed, go to the "Labels-Quick Links to..." section on the left-hand side of the page and click on "audiobooks."

Some of the best are by Beverly Cleary. I thought about them particularly because this week marks her 95th birthday! She has written a lot of great books for guys, especially the Henry Huggins and Ramona books. They are still funny!! Don't believe me? Then look at this review of a Ramona audiobook and this one of the Henry Huggins audiobooks. As they said, these things could still happen today!

So check them out and let me know what you think. And if you've heard any other audiobooks that you really liked, write in and tell us!

Jana Tells About Audiobooks Her Boys Listened To and Liked

Our good friend and faithful follower Jana has written to us about yesterday's post that told of good audiobooks for guys.

My sons and I listened to and LOVED all of the Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary. They are read by Neil Patrick Harris and he does a fantastic, hysterical job. My oldest son (6th grade) even commented on how even though the books are older this same kind of stuff could happen today. We are currently listening to Stormbreaker (the first Alex Rider book) and are loving the action! Lastly, we listened to Where the Red Fern Grows on a long trip, another great one!

Thanks, Jana! Yes, those Henry Huggins books are older but those same sorts of things could indeed still happen. Even if technology changes, guys don't change and the same funny stuff that happened then still happens now. Go get those books or audiobooks, guys! You'll love them, just as Jana's boys did!! And let us know how your boys like Stormbreaker--or, better yet, get them to write and tell us! And did you like Where the Red Fern Grows? Was that a "dead dog" story--you know, the type where the dog dies at the end? Bill wrote about a great book called No More Dead Dogs--check out his review here.

Carl

Good Audiobooks for Guys

Hey, guys, 'tis I, the Great and Powerful CARLMAN, back and blogging after a week away from the library. I had to take a week off because my wife fell and broke an ankle last Monday. She SAID it was from playing with our daughter in the driveway, but she HAD to say that to protect her secret identity. She was really defending the city against a crime wave. There she is in action. She's OK now--or as well as you can be with a broken ankle!

Well, Labor Day is coming up soon (a welcome relief after the start of school!) and a lot of you will probably go somewhere over the long weekend. Here are some good audiobooks for the trip:

The Alvin Ho Collection: Books 1 and 2

These books are really funny and the audio version is just as good. In fact, you'll laugh out loud. Alvin Ho is a second-grade kid who's scared of everything--school, piano teachers, wild animals in the woods, tornadoes on camping trips, and more. This audiobook is especially funny because it's read by a real kid, a guy probably about the same age as you! It's extra funny when the boy tries to sound like Alvin's dad!

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

All the Narnia books have a lot of action, but this one has more than most. Two school kids, trying to escape from bullies, find a door that leads into Narnia. Aslan, the great Lion, gives them the assignment to find the lost prince who was enchanted and stolen from Narnia ten years before. The actor who reads it is very good and holds your attention from beginning to end.

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

A fascinating look at what life was really like in the Middle Ages. A young boy, whose father is off at the wars and mother is in London attending to the Queen, contracts the plague and is crippled. The servants leave him by himself, alone in bed and unable to walk! Does he ever get rescued? Does he ever recover? And what happens when the hostile Welsh surround the castle? You've got to listen to find out!

Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

I'm cheating a little bit here because I've listened only to the first disc but it's alrerady funny! Ramona Quimby is one of the greatest pains you'll ever meet and here she starts kindergarten. You'll laugh when tries to "sit here for the present" or asks a question about Mike Mulligan.

These books are great for the car or if you have a personal CD player. Nothing better to make the miles fly by! Hit the "audiobooks" tab below if you want to find out about more good reads--I mean "listens"!

HAIL Heroes (and Villains)

Hey everyone, we had a great time at our Heroes and Villains festival. I don't have time to write much, but I'll show you some pictures and Bill will say some more. As I said, it was a great time. We had Guitar Hero: That's cyber kid 303 in the middle with the baseball cap. We also had some actual fire fighters come here and let some kids get on the fire engine:

Bill, I mean, Captain Bootstrap Bill is with them. He burns the port cities and they put out the fires. Here's the fire engine:

We also had a portable basketball goal so kids could be a Basketball Hero:

That's Bootstrap Bill again--he said he wanted to "burn one in." We tried to tell him that when you steal the ball you don't really steal the ball.

But finally the Hero Avengers of Imaginon Library (or HAIL) caught up to Bootstrap Bill and paid him back for his dastardly deeds:

As I said, we all had a lot of fun. And, guess what---cyber kid 303 was there to get his free Rick Riordan T-shirt:

Hey, Mr. Riordan, any chance cyber kid could be a Demigod of the Week?

Well, I'd put up more pictures, but Blogger is telling me I've used up half of the capacity already. So I'll see if Bill wants to make another post. By the way, I told you all that I'd post cyber kid's and Will's new comments, so here they are:

101 Ways to Bug Your Parents by Lee Wardlaw. Mrs. Wardlaw is another author I met at Novello (in 2006). She has a son, so she knows how to write books that are interesting to boys. This is a good book and it really does teach you 101 ways to bug your parents. I've tried a lot of them. She also wrote 101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher.

That's from cyber kid. Did you really use some of thsoe on your parents? Did they write a book called 101 Ways to Ground Your Kid?

Here's from Will:

Otis Spofford by Beverly Cleary is a good book because Otis always gets in trouble and always gets an excuse to get out of it, but he gets paid back from his prank....two girls get him back by playing a prank on him.

Very good, Will. You've really made me want to read the books you write about and that's the sign of a good book reviewer. I've got Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary checked out and I'll let you guys know how it is.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

Carl