Davy, Davy Crockett...

Yee-haa!!! I'm Carl, the greatest blogger that ever sat in front of a computer screen! I'm half-horse, half- alligator, with just a touch of snappin' turtle! I can ride a streak of lightning, outgrin a hailstorm, shoot a rifle ball through the moon, and whip my weight in wildcats!!!

Well, do you really think I can do all that? Maybe not, but there was one American who said he could--the great Davy Crockett! He was the one who said all that (except the blogging part!) and, tarnation, I believe he could have done it! I'm writing about Davy today because I did a Heroes program about this true-life hero last Tuesday. He told a lot of tall tales about himself, which made him famous, but his real life was as great an adventure as any of his stories. He was born in 1796 to a poor backwoods family, had only 100 days of formal education in his whole life, and failed at every business he ever attempted, including farming. Yet this poor backwoodsman was elected to Congress three times, became a national celebrity, had magazines named after him, plays written about him, and he finally died a hero's death at the Alamo. The library has several copies of a book, Davy Crockett: Defender of the Alamo by William Sanford and Carl R. Green, that you ought to check out. Good information about the man behind the legend--and he really did live a larger-than-life story.

Davy told some very funny stories, especially about those about his being able to grin animals out of trees. His grin was so big and bright that critters, like raccoons, would just fall down dead into his sack--or his pot. Here's a picture of me as Davy and some kids from the program doing our best Davy Crockett grins.

Here's something new--a video! Here's Fess Parker, who played Davy in the great old Disney series, singing the famous theme song. (whole generations grew up singing this):

Click here to see a very funny video of the Kentucky Headhunters singing the same song.

OK, my friend Alan Silberberg, the Pond Scum author, wrote me a couple of weeks ago and asked me (and Bill) to write 5 things about ourselves. Well, you've heard one today--I think Davy Crockett was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.

PS--Bill is back. We'll tally the votes and hope to post them soon.

More Votes and One More Book From the ACCC

Very good! We have votes fom cyber kid 303 for the Sweet 16 of Books! I've been waiting to hear from you, cyber kid. Missed you at the Davy Crockett program Tuesday. (I'll post something about that sometime soon) Here are cyber kid's picks:

Here are my picks:
Harry Potter
Captain Underpants
Matt Christopher
Bone Series
Time Warp Trio
Chronicles of Narnia
Charlie Bone
Spiderwick Chronicles

Good choices. I don't have time to figure results up now and have received more paper ballots in the last couple of hours, so I really wonder which books will go on to the next round.

Our friends at the Guys Read blog often write about What I'm Reading Now. It's a good idea. Several of them like realistic adventure stories, so they'll be pleased to know that I'm reading one called The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell. Looks good so far. It's about pearl divers in Baja California, that strip of land in Mexico below California. There's supposed to be a giant manta ray in the story, so it ought to be quite an adventure. If it's good, I'll write about it as a good pick ACCording to Carl.
That's me!
PS--have you ever written to the Guys Read blog, cyber kid?

The ACCC

Greetings, all you March Madness fans. Bill is out sick today, so we may have to wait a bit to tabulate the results for the first round of our Sweet 16 of Books. (I wonder if a Sith lord takes medicines or fights viruses with a light saber) In the meantime, I'll give you some book recommendations from THE ACCC, that is, ACCording to Carl. We live in North Carolina and are part of the mighty ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), so I thought that our blog could go them one better and be THE ACCC. So here are some good books ACCording to Carl.
Actually the first books are a seres, the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. A lot of our regular readers are big fans of fantasy and I'm surprised that not many people have talked about them before. These books are really terrific and belong on this blog that points out terrific books. Each one has enough adventure, excitement, and humor to satisfy any reader. They are, in order:

The Book of Three--Young Taran, the orphan boy, is Assistant Pig-Keeper to the wizard Dallben, who is 397 years old. Life is boring as an Assistant Pig-Keeper, but it suddenly becomes exciting when Hen Wen, the oracular pig, escapes and she must be rescued before she's captured by the forces of Arawn, Lord of the Dead. This book has it all--adventure, magic, mysterious swords found in an underground barrow, the fearful Horned King, Eilonwy the tomboy princess who adventures with Taran, faithful Gurgi the whatever-he-is, and much more!

The Black Cauldron--Taran gets his chance to wear a sword and go on a daring raid into Annuvin, the realm of Arawn, and capture the Black Cauldron, which can create an army of the undead. He soon finds out that this is glorious adventure is not just fun and games but a real life and death confrontation with evil. Even better than the first one.


The Castle of Llyr--Since Eionwy is a princess, she has to sail away to the Isle of Mona to learn to act like one, even though she hates the idea. She falls under the spell of the evil enchantress Archen, however, and Taran and friends must rescue her. Or does Eilonwy want to be rescued? Wow, this one is good!



Taran Wanderer--The Assistant Pig-Keeper becomes obsessed with finding the truth about his birth and identity. He will know if he finds the magical Mirror of Llunet. Does he do it? And what else does he learn along the way? I can't say enough good things about this one!




The High King--The final confrontation between Arawn and the forces of good. This book won a Newberry Medal (sort of the Oscar for kids' books) as best book of its year, and, boy, did it deserve it!!!A great conclusion to an unbelievably good series. Don't miss them!




Hope to get results up soon. Just from looking at some of the paper ballots, we might have some upsets! Ought to be interesting!
Carl

More Votes!

All right!! we have 4 more people sending in their votes. The first is Kristie:

Left:
Harry Potter (which pains me that you've made me choose between my two favorite series so quickly. blast!)
Artemis Fowl
Matt Christopher
Bone
Right:
Percy Jackson
The Chronicles of Narnia
Charlie Bone
Underland

Thanks, Kristie! The next three are from our friends at the Guys Read Blog. There's Koko B. Ware:

Game 1: Harry
Game 2: Artemis
Game 3: Star wars
Game 4: Jack sparrow
Game 1: Lightning
Game 2: Eragon
Game 3: Charlie
Game 4: Gregor
Awesome Idea
from Koko .B Ware Guysread

And Ricky zee Dragon:

For game 1: Harry potter
For game 2: Artemis fowl
For game 3: Matt Christopher
For game 4: Jack sparrow
For game 1: Lightning thief all the way.
For game 2: Eragon
For game 3: Charlie brown
For game 4: Gregor the Overlander
A 3rd vote from guys read!!!!

And Andre the Giant:

Game 1: I would hope that the Dark Materials Trilogy will win, mark 1 for me. But Harry Potter will win mainly because people are very prejudiced on the Dark Materials Trilogy.
Game 2: I think and hope Artemis Fowl will win, because no one likes Captain Underpants anymore.
Game 3: I hope the Matt Cristopher books will win, but I think it'll be a close call.
Game 4: I think and hope the Jack Sparrow books will win because, the movies are extremely popular.
Game 1(right): I think the Percy Jackson series will dominate, only because Rick Riordan is such a talented author.Game 2(right): I hope the Narnia books will win because they are classics.
Game 3(right): I'm going for Beet, because I enjoy different tastes of genres.
Game 4(right): I'm going for the Spiderwick only because I have not heard about Gregor the Overlander.
Another vote from Guys Read!

Good work, everyone! Tomorrow ends the first round, so we'll tabulate the results and tell you which books go on to the next round. (by the way, we printed some paper brackets here at the library which people have filled out, so what you see aren't all the votes!)
Thanks, you all. You make this fun.
Carl

Our First Votes in the March Madness Book Series Tournament!

Hey, all you March Madness lovers! It's Carl, back from a long battle with some kind of virus. It tried to defeat me but Carl the Brave, Carl the Bold, Carl the Finally Got Enough Sense To See His Doctor triumphed!!! Now that I'm back, I see that we have two submissions already for the brackets in the Sweet 16 of Books. The first votes come from Danna:

Gotta Love March Madness!

Left Bracket

Game 1 : Harry Potter

Game 2 : Artemis Fowl

Game 3 : Star Wars

Game 4 : Bone

Right Bracket

Game 1 : Percy Jackson

Game 2 : Narnia

Game 3 : Charlie Bone

Game 4 : Underland

Good choices, Danna!! As everyone knows, I'm a huge fan of Percy Jackson. But you probably don't know that I'm a great Narnia fan as well. I read a whole bunch of C. S. Lewis books, including Narnia, back in my 20's and they had a big impact on me. I'd like to write something about Prince Caspian around the time the movie comes out. But I digress. Here is another set of votes from Anonymous:

L

HP

Art

SW

Bone

R

TWT

Narnia

CB

Spider

Looks like Anonymous is a person of few words. More good choices--although there are some conflicts already! Anonymous and Danna agreed on the Left side but Anonymous chose Time Warp Trio and Spiderwick on the Right brackets. Hmmm----maybe there are some Cinderella books that'll go farther in the tournament than expected. Stay tuned, fans!

March Madness is Here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let the Games Begin!!!!!!!

"Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures"
all the way or I shoot the Wookiee!!

Vote for His Dark Materials or get eaten by Iorek Byrnison!!!




Hi all it is I, the dunkenest Sith Lord in the whole entire universe, Darth Bill!!!! Well to go along with the theme of a basketball tournament, I thought we might do here on the blog a book series tournament. So without further adieu, here is The Boys Rule, Boys Read Sweet 16 Book Tournament.







Now this bracketing did not come out as big as I would have liked so to help here are the match-ups seen up close and personal:

Game 1 on the Left Side:

The Harry Potter Series (seed 1) Vs. His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, etc.) (seed 8)

VS.

Game 2 on the Left Side:

The Artemis Fowl Series (seed 4) Vs. The Captain Underpants Series (seed 5)

Vs.

Game 3 on the Left Side:

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (seed 3) Vs.The Matt Christopher Book Series (seed 6)

Vs.

Game 4 on the Left Side:

The Bone Series (seed 2) Vs. The Jack Sparrow Series (seed 7)

Vs.

Game 1 on the Right Side:

The Percy Jackson Series (The Lightning Thief, etc) (seed 1) Vs.The Time Warp Trio Series (seed 8)

Vs.

Game 2 on the Right Side:

Eragon, Eldest Series (seed 3) Vs. The Chronicles of Narnia (seed 6)

Vs.

Game 3 on the Right Side:

The Charlie Bone Series (seed 4) Vs. The Beet Series (seed 5)

Vs.

Game 4 on the Right Side:

The Spiderwick Chronicles (seed 2) Vs. Underland Chronicles (seed 7)

Vs.

Now here are the rules for The Boys Rule, Boys Read Sweet 16 Book Tournament:

1) The books that are going against each other will move to the next round if they receive the most votes from you guys.

2) Everyone who wants to (adults and girls also) can vote by responding to this blog and voting for the books in each match-up they would like to see go on in the tournament.

3) Multiple voting by the same individual for a particular book is not allowed. One vote for each match-up.

4) Voting will start with the posting of this blog entry and voting from bloggers will be allowed for that day and for 7 following days (first round votes due by 9:00 p.m. Wensday, March 12) . Also if you can get by ImaginOn, we will have paper handouts that you can use to vote.

5) You will notice that the books are seeded. What this means is the books with the higher seeds (1 being highest, 8 being lowest) are expected to go further in the tournament. Those with lower number are expected to make early exits. However, who goes on and who goes home will be determined by your votes.

6) Finally for whomever votes for the most books that go the furthest, a prize as yet undetermined will be awarded. In the case of a tie, the number difference between upsets will be used to determine the ultimate winner (say someone picks a seed 8 to beat a seed 1, that would give them 7 points for a tie-breaker, etc.).

7) That's it all. So get in there and vote for your favorite books and more importantly have fun!!!!!!

Well I'm excited about this so until next time peace all,

Bill

It's March Madness, Baybeee!!!

Yes, it's March, one of my favorite months of the year. It brings the best month-long sports event of the year, March Madness, the college basketball tournament. For a whole glorious month, there are games, games, and more games. The tension mounts as schools win and lose, getting ever closer to the championship. There is almost always one major upset. There is almost always some Cinderella team who goes much farther than expected. The road to the Final Four is always exciting and the championship game keeps me up late every year. Plus, living in Charlotte, NC, we get to see the great ACC (Atlantic coast Conference) tournament. Great teams live in this conference--Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, Boston College, etc.

So, this month, we thought we'd hold a March Madness of Reading. The rules are simple--the two boys who send in the most comments talking about books will win prizes. First Place will be an autographed T-shirt from the UNCC 49'ers Mens' Basketball team! Second place will be an autographed UNCC 49'rs Men's Basketball poster! Sound good? It could be yours if you send us the most book comments by March 31.We will announce the winners on April 1. Come to Imaginon to claim your prize. (If you live outside the Charlotte area, we will find a way to get the prize to you)

There's one other rule--at least one of the books you talk about must be about sports. It could be any sport and it could be a chapter book, biography, or nonfiction. And in case of a tie, we will look more favorably on the one who has sent more reviews about sports books. OK??? Get writing!! We can't wait to hear from you!

And I'll lead by example. Here are three books I've liked and some others we've written about before.

Free Throw by Jake Maddox. Jason was the center and star player last year, but Derek became an inch taller since then. Now he's the center and Jason doesn't like it. What's worse, the games depend on Derek's free throw shooting. Jason doesn't think Derek can make them. Maybe Derek doesn't thinks so, either. Will he save the games or ruin them? You've got to read this short but fast-paced and exciting book to find out.


Paintball Blast by Jake Maddox. Max Hauser knows the perfect lookout point in the paintball field. From the correct angle, no one can mark him. But one of the new kids does! Max knows he must be cheating--but how? Another fast-paced and exciting short book with a bit of a mystery thrown in. Both books have intersting things about their sports at the end of the books.

The New York Yankeesby Mark Stewart. I remember the glory days of Mickey Mantle and exciting World Series matches of the Yankees vs. the Cardinals (the teachers even brought radios into our classrooms because the pitcher for the Cardinals was Tim McCarver from Memphis, where I lived in those days) But you know what? The glory days of the yankees are still going. This book traces the history of the team that has won more World Series than any other from their beginnings in Baltimore in 1901 until today. Really interesting with lots of good baseball and Yankees information.

Books we've already reviewed:

Nothing But Net by Dean Hughes Good basketball story. Check out my review in Bookhive here.

Jim Thorpe's Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac (reviewed on 8-25-07) and Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku by Ellie Crowe (reviewed on 2-15-08) Incredible true stories of great athletes. Don't miss these!

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete: Races You'd Rather Not Run by Michael Ford (reviewed on 1-11-08) The real deal on the ancient Greek Olympics with funny illustrations!

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (reviewed 2-28-08) Another great true story--this time in a graphic novel!

All right, let's hear from you! AND--watch out for Bill's special game related to this contest this month!
Carl