New Friends, Old Friends, and The Giver

Hey, gang, it's Carl. Before I go any further, let me say

GO PANTHERS!!! GO PANTHERS!!! GO PANTHERS!!!

Yes, the Carolina Panthers are playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the championship of the division tonight on national TV!!! Both teams are 9 and 3; both teams are tied for first place. Ought to be quite a game!

We've got two comments, one from an old friend and one from a new friend. Let's hear from Ms. Yingling, our new friend first:

Just found your site! Very excited to go through your blog roll, and hope to see a lot of good reviews of books for boys. I try my best, but never having been a boy puts me at a disadvantage sometimes!

Thanks, Ms. Yingling, and don't worry about never having been a boy because we'll make you an Honorary Guy, just as we do for all girls who write in to us. Yes, I know that's an extremely great honor and you might need a moment to recover, so just take all the time you need. There are a lot of good links for guy books on our blog roll--and don't forget that we have a list af all the books we and the guys have written about on that blog roll! Ms. Yingling is a middle-school librarian and runs a pretty cool blog too. Check it out at http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/

The other comment is from cyber kid 303:

The Wish Giver was a good book about Thaddeus Blinn and his strange wish cards. Stew Meat, Polly, Rowena, and Adam all by wish cards and all except Stew make wishes they regret.This a great adventure book.

Thanks to you too, cyber kid!! It's good to hear from you again! A lot of other people have been talking lately on other bogs about The Giver, so now I'm really curious. I really have to finish Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein first. We've been busy and I get to read only a few pages at a time, but I'm enjoying it.

And, now, for your holiday entertainment, here is an amazing video of a house with a lot of Christmas lights. "So what," you say, "there are bunches of houses loaded with Christmas lights!" Yeah, well, I bet this is the only one whose lights are in time with that great old song, "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus." (It starts off a little slowly but picks up quickly) Enjoy!!!

Of Clones, Bravery and Storytubes

Hello all, Darth Bill coming at you from my fly Tie-Fighter way out here in space!!!!!! Check it out:



Okay I'm going to do something I don't do often. I am going to give a complement to "The Carlman" for throwing caution to the side and doing an excellent job of memorizing and videoing his rendition of "The Gettysburg Address." Yes Carlman, you rocked (man that's so hard for me to say for some reason....maybe cause he called me a chicken, hum.....).























That's right Carlman, meet the doomslayer of all heroes and mythic gods....... The Red Roster of Death!!!!!!!


I have some other things to talk about so lets get it rolling. First I have to tell you about this awesome new Star Wars book that I have just finished reading.


Decide Your Destiny: Star Wars, The Clone Wars: The Way of The Jedi by Jake Forbes - This is a very cool chose your adventure type of book in which you start the book as a young Jedi Knight learner at the Jedi Temple. You and a friend named Jaylen, also a young Jedi Knight learner, are summoned to see Master Yoda and from there your adventure can go in many directions depending on the choices you make. I read this book through twice with each ending being very different. In one I made a very bad decision and was captured by the Separatist and put into an arena to be feed to wild beast. In another I saved a bunch of Wookies from being sold into slavery and made a member of their tribe. This is a very cool book and I highly recommend it to both Star Wars fans and fans of chose your adventure type books. Now they need to make one for us Sith. Yea, that would be way cool!!!!! Anyway, definitely give this one a try.





Lastly I want to talk about this really cool contest that is coming up that will be nationwide (and even in parts of Canada)!!!!! It's called Storytubes and here is a little information about it:

• Would you like to be the star of your very own movie? Well the nationwide Storytube Contest will let you do this by creating an online video talking about your favorite book. The Storytube Contest is open to students in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade. Video entries consist of either one student promoting one book to group efforts consisting of 2 to 5 students promoting one book submitted to the Storytubes Web Site. To enter, the contestant must upload the video to YouTube or TeacherTube and submit the correct corresponding StoryTubes Contest Entry Form. Partner libraries will work together to select entries to receive Judges’ Choice Awards and pick videos to go to online voting at the Storytubes Web Site for popular voting. For both the Judges’ Choice Awards and Popular Online Voting, at least one award will be reserved for each entry category. These categories are as follows: Grades K - 4, Grades 5 - 8, Grades 9 - 12 and Group Enteries. Judges’ Choice Awards will be announced by March 9, 2009. Online voting for videos chosen to proceed to popular voting will be held on the Storytubes Web Site as follows:

Individual Entries, Grades K-4	March 9-12
Individual Entries, Grades 5-8	March 16-19
Individual Entries, Grades 9 up	March 23-26
Group Entries, All Ages	March 30-April 2

Prizes will be awarded to both winners in the Judges’ Choice Awards and the online popular voting.

Things to know:

· Make your video two minutes long (or shorter);

· Feature only one book in your video;

· Be familiar with the book and have a copy for your video so you can introduce it and tell the name of the book and its author;

· Enter as an individual or as part of a group of two to five people;

· Submit entries between January 8 and February 15, 2009, but you can start working on them earlier;

· Go to the Storytubes Web Site and get more information at: http://www.storytubes.info.

· Be creative!

Also:

The Spangler Library at ImaginOn will be having Information Sessions on the Storytubes Competition on December 20 and December 29 at 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. for anyone wishing to learn more. If you have any questions about these upcoming Information Sessions or the Storytubes Competition in general, please call Darth Bill at 704-973-2720.

Man that was a ton of good information!!!!!!! Well you cats take it easy and I'll talk at you later,

Bill

Carl Recites the Gettysburg Address

Yes, it's me, Carl, once again. I want to remind all of you about our Recite The Gettysburg Address contest. November 19 marked the 145th anniversary of the speech that defined what America is all about and, in honor of it, we're holding a contest and giving prizes to any boy who comes to either the Imaginon or Matthews library and recites from memory the Address.
And, to lead by example, here's a video of me reciting that speech.



You see? It doesn't have to be perfect. And it doesn't take long--I did it in less than 2 minutes!!
We'd like to record you too, but if you don't want us to, we won't.
How does it work? Just call us and set up a time to come and recite to me or Bill at Imaginon or to Zack at Matthews. Please don't just show up!! Call us first so we can be ready when you get here. (704-973-2720 for Imaginon and 704-416-5000 for Matthews) The deadline to call is this Saturday, December 6 by 6:00 pm. That doesn't mean you have to recite by then; that just means you need to call and set up a time by then.
The first six boys to recite at Imaginon will get a card good for 2 free slices at Fuel Pizza at 6th and College street!!!
All right, let's get those phones ringing!! And cyber kid, Lord Vader, Bruner Boys, Trinity Episcopal School, Community Charter School, all you guys in Charlotte and Matthews--we know you can do it!!!!!

Carl

To You, Holidays Happy

Hey everyone, I got this great pin a few years ago before we started the blog, lost it, and then found it again.

I think I'll wear it today to see what sort of reaction I get from Darth Bill!!

Carl

Thanksgiving, Home of the Blues, Comments, and The Cricket in Times Square Audiobook

Hey, gang, it's me, simple old Carl this time. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did!!! My sister invited me to come over to Memphis, where we grew up. She's an awesome cook and I earned a new name, the Great and Powerful STOMACHMAN!! We also saw the Memphis Zoo, which we went to as kids, and the Enchanted Forest, a Christmas exhibit at the Memphis Pink Palace Museum, whcih we also saw as kids. We all enjoyed ourselves, but it's a looooong drive there and I'm glad to be out of the car!

I didn't get to do much reading but did hear a terrific audiobook (or book on CD) called The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden, read by Rene Aubernojois. I'd never read the book but heard the story was good. It sure was! A cricket named Chester, who lives in the Connecticut countryside, accidntally gets trapped under 3 roast beef sandwiches in a picnic basket. When he fianlly escapes, he finds himself in the 42nd St. stop in the Times Square subway station. There he's adopted as a pet by Mario, a boy whose family runs a newstand there. Chester also makes friends with Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat, two streetwise New York animals living in the subway. Mario thinks the cricket might be good luck, which his family needs because the newstand is losing money fast, but his Mama is convinced that Chester is a jinx (bad luck)--which Chester and his firends nearly prove when they almost set the newstand on fire! But Chester has a special talent that might make Mario's family rich and famous--but can he do it before Mario's Mama throws him out?? As I said, this is a great story and not just some cutesy animal tale. And Rene Auberjonois (who was Odo on Deep Space Nine) does an absolutely awesome job of reading it--not just reading it, but getting all the voices of the characters just right! Plus there are sound effects and music with the reading, so you've got a really good time here. Just the thing if you're on a car trip or like to listen to books.

We also have a comment and review. The comment is from Warnell:

Hello--long time reader, first time commenter, thanks for taking my call. I am a baby librarian (in a public school-first year) and found a very cool site I wanted to pass along (if you haven't already seen it). ReadKiddoRead.com is a site designed by Jame Patterson because he is the parent of a boy who is (was) a reluctant reader. There is a page with interviews (Rick Riordan and Jeff Kinney) and LOTS of booklists. I thought it was right up your alley!

Thanks for the call, Warnell. This site really is good. Take a look here. It's aimed at parents and teachers, but you guys would find a lot of good stuff there, especially under the Page Turners and Advanced Readers. There's also a section on books for boys--take a look here. I'll add it to our links.

There's also a new review from Lord Vader (aka Mikey):

I just finished Star Wars:the Clone Wars by Tracey West. I really loved this book. I thought it was funny when Anakin got stuck with a Padawan and he didn't want one. I like when they foil Count Dooku again. I didn't get to see the movie so reading this was great.

Fantastic! I haven't seen the movie either but I'd like to check it out or rent it. Do you watch the series on Cartoon Network?

Well, thanks for sticking with me for such a long post, guys!!

Carl

The CARLMAN Sends His Appreciation

There is no need to fear, Master Jedi Zack, the Great and Powerful CARLMAN appreciates all advice (and encourages everyone to do the right thing). Just as his amazing pwoer comes from reading, so does his wisdom. ("Without wisdom, power nothing is", as Yoda would say) Those who are truly wise know that they have much to learn and are glad of advice.

Here you see me at the Seat of Wisdom, thinking over all the possiblities.

But I am aware of the dangers of a truce with a sith--the CARLMAN was not born yesterday!! Do not forget that I was present when that one basely attacked the innocent Jedi. But in the interest of bringing balance to the Force and, more importantly, finding terrific books for boys, I am willing to take the chance.
Besides, I wanna find out about Gregor the Ovelander!!!!!

beware the truce!

I know I am putting myself in a dangerous position by doing this, but as a Jedi I must always do the right thing. I must remind the great and kind CARLMAN that the truce offering of a Sith is a dangerous thing to accept.

I must remind everyone of the last truth the dastardly Darth Bill entered into resulted in an attack at WordPlay Saturday.
CARLMAN, the Jedi can not always be there to protect you, but we will do our best.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone (even you Sith)!!!