Another Hung Jury, Mudville, and a Good Weekend

Whoa. What are the chances of this happening again?? We set up a poll for you to vote on the guilt or innocence of Evil Ell...I mean, the accused Ellen. You remember that she stood accused of the heinous crime of putting a princess book in the Sacred Shrine of Guyhood (our Boys Read book display). We held a fair and impartial trial in the Cosmic Court of Justice but ended up with a hung jury (which means they couldn't decide), so we put it out there for you to decide. Well, the time was up at 4 pm today. At 3 pm the votes were going against Darth Bill. Then somehow, I don't know how, there were 6 votes in one hour that said the Carlman did it, which made it exactly 11 votes against Darth Bill and 11 votes against the Carlman!!!! What a coincidence!!!! Never in all the eons of the galaxy has the Carlman seen such a coincidence. Now some might say that it was a sith plot to throw suspicion off Darth Bill, but I say it is just an amazing alignment of the stars and planets. That means, of course, that we have another hung jury and we must declare Ellen INNOCENT. There--once again you have an example of the great fairness and justice of BOYS.

Now that we've got that settled, I can tell you about Mudville, the new book by first-time author Kurtis Scaletta. 12-year-Roy McGuire lives in Moundville, loves baseball, but has never played a game in his hometown. Why? Because it's been raining there for the last 22 years!! Yep, 22 years. It all started when Roy's dad was playing for the Moundville team against their old rivals, the Sinister Bend team. Moundville had never won against the other team but, when rain clouds started moving in, Roy's dad saw that they could keep Moundville from losing if he could delay the game until it rained, when the game would be called off. So the rain came, the game was called off--and it kept raining for 22 years!! What would happen if the rain stopped? Could Roy and his friends finish the game his postponed?? You gotta read it to find out!! And the ending--knowing what happens at the end, would YOU do the same thing Roy did? Don't know what I'm talking about? Then you gotta read to find out!!

BTW, Mr. Scaletta is writing more books. Read an interview with him here. I'm glad Mudville won't be his last book!

I'm off until Monday. I've got The Sword Thief, the latest 39 Clues with me, plus The City of Ember, and James and the Giant Peach. PLUS--the ACC basketball tournament is on TV. Carolina plays at noon tomorrow and Florida State at 2. Ahhh---good books, ACC basketball with chips and salsa!! This will be a good weekend!!

Carl

Wow! ANOTHER Interview!

Hey, evryone, this is Carl. Isn't the internet great? You can do all sorts of cool things on there--play games, find out interesting stuff, and read other blogs. This last one is great because I learn about great new books through other blogs. Sometimes I get to find out about new books before they come out. That's how I found out about Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta. It sounds like a good story and Mr. Scaletta sounds like a good guy. (I was so intersted in this book that I contacted him through his website) Do you know what?? This book hasn't even come out yet!! And do you also know what? This is his FIRST BOOK!!! I wonder what it must be like to be a first-time author. Well, we're going to find out because Mr. Scaletta gave us an interview!

Could you tell us about your new book? What is it about? How did you come up with the story? How long did it take to write it?

Mudville is about a town where it’s been raining for 22 years, so a generation of kids haven’t been able to play baseball unless they drive to another town. There used to be a big baseball rivalry with the town next door, but that town has been washed off the face of the earth. When the rain finally stops, the kids decide to put a team together and stage a rematch, which is hard since most of them don’t know how to play and their rivals don’t exist anymore.

What is it like to have a book published for the first time?

It takes a while for a book to go through editing, so there’s plenty of time to get used to the idea and start fretting that it won’t be a successful book and that the publisher will regret investing in you… but when the book is actually out – just 22 more days! – I think I will be able to stop fretting for a second and just enjoy the moment.

You have another book coming out! Tell us about that one too.

I have a work in progress that will most likely come out next year. It’s about an American kid who lives in West Africa because his father is in the foreign service – that part is based on personal experience. This kid befriends a mamba, though – one of the deadliest snakes in the world – that part is definitely not based on personal experience!

What did you like to read as a boy? Did you have any favorite comics? Any favorite heroes?

My favorite writer when I was a kid was Daniel Manus Pinkwater, who wrote silly but often poignant books. My favorite comics—if I’m being honest—were Archie comics. I read crates of them. I liked Spiderman a little but didn’t really get into the superhero genre very much. My heroes were Indiana Jones and The Fonz.

Why is it cool for boys to read/write?

There’s really nothing more natural than sharing stories. Human beings have been storytellers from the first time cavemen gathered around a campfire and talked about how they caught their dinner. Whether you do it in book form or not, you listen to stories every day– you watch movies or play video games, even look at ads in comic books. They are all stories. You probably tell stories too -- you tell your buddies about your trip to Florida and maybe exaggerate a bit to make it more exciting, or you reenact your favorite scenes from a movie you saw.

Reading is just one more way to share stories, but I’ve always thought it was the best way to really get pulled into the story, and as a writer I find nothing more rewarding than making up the stories that kids can get pulled into.

What are your favorite sports? Favorite teams?

As you might guess, my favorite sport to watch is baseball. I’m a Twins fan, since I live in Minnesota. I also root for the Gopher football team and the Vikings. The only other sport I watch is golf, which I also sort of play, if you can call what I do “golfing” instead of just tearing up the golf course and cursing a lot.


Which do you like better—cheeseburgers or pizza? What do you like on them?

When it comes to guy food, my favorite is a plate of hot wings with plenty of bleu cheese to dip them in. However, if pressed to decide between the two options listed, I am not averse to a bacon cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato and a side of onion rings. In fact you’ve got me craving that now and it’s only 7:30 in the morning.

Thanks, Mr. Scaletta! The library has already ordered copies of his book, so be on the lookout for it.

Yukon CARLMAN Pushes On!

Yes, guys, this is Yukon CARLMAN, resting up after driving my dogsled through the driving snow to open up this library for all you book-hungry people. It was tough, pushing through the Great Blizzard of '09, but I had a duty to perform!!! No matter how cold it was, no matter how deep the snow, even if the library opened a whole TWO HOURS late, I had to get through!! And here I am, ready to answer those homework questions and find just the right book for you desperate guys who are going to be snowed in until June----what did you say, Bill? The sun is shining? The snow's already melted? The streets are clear? Ummmmm---well, then, Yukon CARLMAN has, um, fulfilled his mission!! (Now, what am I going to do with all this leftover whale blubber??)

OK, enough silliness. We did have some snow and school was cancelled and I was somewhat worried that tomorrow's author visit would be called off, but it should still happen. If you get a chance, come to Imaginon tomorrow, Thursday, February 5 at 11:00 am, and hear Helen Hemphill talk about her terrific new book The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones. If the weather looks bad, call us at 704-973-2720 and find out.

Under the "my bad!" category, I wrote last week about Ian and his blog Books To Read and Games To Play. I told him I'd link it to our blog but forgot to do it. My bad!! I'm sorry, Ian, and have posted with all the other links on the left-hand side of the page. Check it out--it's run by a reader boy just like you all!

Speaking of authors, I'm working on posting an interview with Kurtis Scaletta, an author who's got a new book coming out. It's called Mudville and is so new that it hasn't been published yet! (but I have a copy already and will tell you guys about it. Just started it and it's good so far) Anyway, Mr. Scaletta runs a website and a blog and wrote one of the coolest things I ever saw about boys and reading. He talked about running a 4th-grade Guys Read group in the summer and seeing that boys are smart enough t0 read over their heads:

Yesterday we closed the books (heh) on another Guys Read. I learned that fourth grade boys don’t get Dianna Wynn Jones, like Will Hobbs and Gary Paulsen OK, and would rather talk about movies than books anyway.

If I learned anything else from this round, it’s that kids read over their head. When groups promote reading, they generally talk about gaining academic skills, as if reading is only a ladder to get somewhere else. I would trade that image for one of a mountain climber tossing a grappling hook up to a new peak and then slowly inching up the sheer side of a cliff. When kids who squirm in the chair and wander off topic in seconds tell me they’ve read and enjoyed Jules Verne, Brian Jacques, Christopher Paolini, and other big thick books with strange worlds and new vocabularies, I remember I was the same way as a kid. I read way over my head, and slowly spent the rest of my life trying to reach the intellectual and emotional maturity to speak and behave like the person I was when I was reading.

He's right! I've heard several of you guys talk about reading "big thick books with strange worlds and new vocabulaires." That takes brains, guys!! Keep it up!! There's a lot of talk out there that boys don't read or that they're not good readers. Well, you guys are proving them wrong! I can relate to what Mr. Scaletta said. I remember being in 7th grade and reading H. G. Well's book The War of the Worlds with a dictionary close by to look up unfamiliar words. (cyber kid 303 and some friends read that in a book club once) Guys like to push themselves in sports and a lot of you push yourselves in reading. It is like mountain climbing--you imagine yourself as a great athlete and you push yourself to get to the top. After a while you find that you've become the athlete you imagined. Readers who pick books that may be a bit above them actually reach the "intellectual and emotional maturity" they imagine. Way to go!!

AND NOWI have to tell you how excited I am that The Demigod Files comes out in less than a week!!! Oh, yeah! Uh huh!! Can't wait!!! Go back to the post of January 30 and see what it's about.

Hope to see some of you tomorrow,

Carl