"Take Me Out to the Ballgame..."

I'm glad you got your copy of the Percy Jackson book, Jedi Master Zack. That was very public-spirited of you, getting your own copy so that kids wouldn't have to wait. The Great and Powerful CARLMAN, though, has decided to set an example of an example of patience and tranquility. Therefore, I am waiting patiently for The Last Olympian.


I'm waitng...patiently..for...The Last Olympian.


I'mmmm.....waiting............patiently........forrrrrrr..................

AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!! WHEN IS IT EVER GOING TO GET HERE????

If you want your parents to get you a copy, our friends and brother readers at the SMS Guys Read blog have given us some guidelines on what to do:

Beggin' Mom or How to get the next Percy Jackson book
Hi, this is The Undertaker and Adam Bomb, we are going to teach you how to beg your mom for books on your way home from a Guys Read club meeting.

Way number 1:
The classic whine with Bambi eyes, like so: Pweety pwease mommy, wit a chweery ontop.

Way number 2:
Beg WITH YOUR LIFE MAN!!!: PPPPPLLLLLLEEEEAAASSSEEE!! If you don't buy it my life will be RUINED! I will never do well in school again, Mom, I will end up in a box behind a Wal-mart eating chicken bones out of the dumpster from the bar next door, all because YOU DID NOT BUY ME THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Way number 3:
Promise to do stuff like: Clean you room, Wash the walls, Clip the cats toe nails, paint the trees, help her with work, stuff like that.

Way number 4(if she questions why you need to go that very instant):
Say that all the other kids at school will laugh at you cause you don't have the book. Promise to work it off or see way number 3.

Way Number 5:
Lie and tell her that your teacher told you that you need to have it for class tomorrow.
and last but not least,

Way number 6:
Suggest the closest bookstore. Saving gas always makes a mom happy

Yours truly,
Adam Bomb and The Undertaker
P.S. NEVER EVER beg in front of a sibling cause' they'll come up with reasons why you don't deserve the book.Beggin' Mom or How to get the next Percy Jackson book

Thanks, guys! We at the Boys Read blog would never recommend lying, of course----well, maybe Darth Bill would since he's a sith lord--but you might try some of these other methods. Check out the whole article here or go their site, which is under the Links section on the left-hand side of the page. PLUS, they wrote a truly outstanding post about Star Wars day, May 4th. Drat!! Wish I'd known about it! That's what I get for not checking their site every day

Well ,as I said before, life doesn't stop stop while waiting and there are lots of good books out there. I just finished a really, really good one called Bill Penant, Babe Ruth, and Me by Timothy Toucher. This is one of those books that makes you feel really good when you turn the last page. And you'll keep turning these pages because of the terrific story.



It's the 1920 baseball season. Young Hank Cobb spent the last summer working for John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants. After the season, McGraw sent Hank off to Anson Academy so the boy could get an education, but Hank absolutely hates school and doesn't see why he needs to be there. His great dream is to be a ball player; he can learn all he needs on the ballfield. Imagine his joy, then, when McGraw calls him out of school to work for the Giants again. But then imagine his surprise when he finds out his new job will be taking care of Bill Penant, the team mascot. And Bill Penant is a baby wildcat--a real wildcat, totally untamed! But that's not all; he also discovers that he must also "take care" of the Yankees' new player, Babe Ruth, who is rather untamed himself. (The Giants and Yankees shared a ball park back then) Can Hank work for both the Giants and Yankees? And what happens when this baby wildcat grows up? And will Hank ever go back to school or stay in the ballpark all his life? Want to know? Then you have to get this book and find out!


I tell you, if you get this one, you'll enjoy it for sure. It's funny, funny, funny--especially with all the scenes of Hank and the wildcat! But then, just as you think it'll be all fun and games, something serious happens that changes Hank's whole life. He has to face up to his fears and decide his future. Is he a coward? Or does he have what it takes? All guys have to answer that question at some point. Read it and see how Hank gets his answer.

And Mr. Tocher does a good job bringing historical people into the story. John Mc Graw was a real person.

So was Damon Runyon (a baseball reporter who went on to become one of America's most famous writers).

Speaking of baseball, let me remind you of some other REALLY good baseball books. One is Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta. It's hard to believe that this is Mr. Scaletta's first book becuase it's so good. The basic idea is that these kids live in a town in which it has rained for 22 years!! Then, one day, it stops!! And it may have something to do with a baseball game 22 years ago, a foster brother, and Native American mysticism. I didn't talk about this book nearly enough when I reviewed it on 3-12-09. The characters act like real kids, the situation, strange as it is, iis totally believable, the story gets a big hold on you, and there's quite a twist at the end. You'll like it a lot!




The other is the Barnstormers series by Loren Long and Phil Bildner. They're going to be called the Sluggers now and there's a new one already out. It's called Water, Water Everywhere. The library has plenty of copies; I'm going to check one out as soon as I'm done writing! You've got baseball, magic, mystery, suspense, and truly nasty bad guys. This is one of my very favorite series!!


Thanks for listening to me in such a long post. I had to talk so much becasue these books are good!!

Later,

Carl

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.