The Championship Round, Nuclear Mentos, and cyber kid

All right, everyone, you all have voted and decided who would move from the Final Four to the Championship Round and again we have a major upset!! Take a look and see:


J.K. Rowling 14 online votes///////////////Jeff Kinney 10 votes
Jay Piscopo 40 votes/////////////////////Neil Gaiman 14 votes

Jay Piscopo trounces J.K. Rowling for the major upset of the year! Therefore the authors that move on to the Championship Round are:




Jay Piscopo, author of The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli

vs.

Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and many others

Let the voting begin! You have until noon on Friday, April 3 to choose. And you have until then to send in reviews of books by any of these authors to win a fabulous prize!!

In other news, our brother reader guys at the SMS Guys Read blog have conducted a highly dangerous science experiment that risked life, limb, and the chance to be sprayed in their faces!! Yes, they performed the Nuclear Mentos test. Take a look at the SMS Guys Read link on the left-hand side of our blog!! You gotta see it!!

And our faithful friend cuber kid 303 has sent us a review of The City of Ember (even if he won't give this Ellen-innocent-or-guilty thing a rest!):

I got my revenge after all. And I do still think Evil Ellen did it. Where is proof from the DNA test? Innocence? HA!

Back to book reveiws now. City of Ember is an action packed book about the City of Ember, which is under gound.For 241 years, lights have been keeping the it in light, nstead of paralizing dark. The lights are powered by the genorator, which is starting to fail. Lights are starting to flicker. Even if the genorator worked, they are running out of lightbulbs and oher vitals such as food. This book is really, really good

Yes, it is!! This book will really grab your attention. This puts you in the running for one of our fabulous prizes. Remember, these prizes go to the three guys who send in the most reviews by noon this Friday!!

Carl

The City of Ember Book Club, Another Possible Upset, and Who's Messing With the Girls' Space?

Hey, reader guys, It's Carl and we had a great time last Saturday at the first Boys' Book Club meeting. We read The City of Ember and had some fun discussion. Then my good friend John Austin, Discovery Place volunteer, talked to us about the science of electricity. John really likes to tinker with things and find out how they work or think of new things to do with them. So he found this old DVD player and was about to throw it out when he started thinking, "Hmmmm, what if I...." and took the motors out to show us how a generator worked. (He showed us that, by turning that motor backward, you could generate a current) Here are some photos:

John and the guys and cool stuff with meters (he's showing us how to measure current)

John and the reader guys

The guys and me. This book rocks, btw. Go read it if you haven't read it already. We'll read the second, The People of Sparks, next. The meeting for that book may be the first Saturday in June. Watch this blog to find out.

The voting continues for The Final Four in the March Madness Author Shoot-out. Take a look and see. And send in your reviews for a chance to win the ultra-cool prizes. Look at the post under this one to see what they are)

AAAANNNDDD--it looked like we would have another mystery on our hands!! Just as we have a Sacred Shrine of Guyhood, the girls have their own book display at Imaginon. Normally this manly man is too busy keeping the guys' display stocked to notice what the girls do. But on this day, something called out to me from that spot. I turned and saw--There were signs advertising the Boys Rule Boys Read blog all over the girls' spot!! Well, you'd think I'd be glad to see signs about the awesome greatness of boys in the girls' display! But then I heard maniacal laughter--and then, out of thin air, appeared--

CYBER KID 303!!!

"Behold my terrible revenge!!" he said. "This is my payment for declaring Evil Ellen innocent of defacing the Sacred Shrine of Guyhood. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!" Well, I had to grab him before he could teleport back and remind him that Evi...I mean, Ellen was fairly tried and acquitted in a Cosmic Court of Justice and that he couldn't take out his frustration on the girls' display. He took his chastisement like a true man, went humbly to the book club, and is a wiser man today. This shows how a true guy can change his behavior and is more proof, if any be needed, of the awesome greatness of boys!!!

The Final Four (and a stunning upset!!)

The results are in from the second round of the March Madness Author Shoot-out and we are ready to move on to the Final Four. But there has been a stunning upset!! Didn't I tell you--every year there's a major upset in the NCAA basketball tournament and it usually happens in the second round. You won't believe it!! Here are the results:

J.K. Rowling 28 online votes (no paper ballots votes;in fact, no one turned any paper ballots for any author this round)
Jeanne DuPrau 22 votes

Kaza Kingsley 24 votes
Jeff Kinney 30 votes

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Rick Riordan 37 votes
Jay Piscopo 43 votes!!
There it is--the major upset!! That goes to show that Capt'n Eli has a lot of fans!

Gordon Korman 21 votes + 3 for a review
Neil Gaiman 26 votes

So the Final Four will be:

J.K.Rowling vs./////////////////Jay Piscopo vs.
Jeff Kinney////////////////////Neil Gaiman

You can vote for your favorite until noon this Tuesday, March 31. Then I'll tabulate the results and announce the Championship Round. (The Championship Round will go from noon Tuesday until noon Friday, April 3. After that, I'll announce the winner) Don't forget--you can send in a review by any of the authors in this tournament (J.K. Rowling, Kurtis Scaletta, Rick Riordan, Suzanee Collins, Helen Hemphill, Jeanne DuPrau, Jeff Smith, Jay Piscopo, Dave Barry, Jeff Kinney, Gordon Korman, Dan Gutman, Kaza Kingsley, Jon Scieszka, Neil Gaiman, Jenny Nimmo)and be eligible for prizes, which are:

A signed t-shirt and two signed Erec Rex books by Kaza Kingsley
A Deadwood Jones t-shirt and a signed book by Helen Hemphill, author of The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones
An Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli graphic novel and a pack of Capt'n Eli cards

The three guys who send in the most reviews will get to pick. So start voting and sending those reviews!
Carl

New Prizes! A Three Pointer! And the Boys Book Club! And the Latest Casting Choices for The Lightning Thief!

This is amazing! The leads keep switching faster than a Carolina-Duke game! An author who has the lead one day can fall behind the next. And can you believe how close these brackets are? J.K. Rowling and Jeanne DuPrau are too close to call. Makes me hold my breath! Does the excitement ever stop??? Keep those votes coming!

A package of prizes has arrived from the wonderful Helen Hemphill. We have 2 Deadwood Jones T-shirts plus 3 signed copies of her book. Don't believe me? See for yourselves!

The shirt

The close-up

The book. These could be YOURS if you're one of the three guys who write in the most reviews!!

To add to the competition, our friend Andre the Giant from the SMS Guys Read blog has sent a review of a Gordon Korman book:

This is for Gordon Korman. I think his best book is schooled, where a hippie goes to a public school and greatly influences his students. This not only has a deep embedded msessage but it is a vastly interesting book. My favorite part is where the main character saves the bus driver by evading the cops and driving the bus to the hospital. He then asks why everybody is congratulating him for driving the bus, but not how the bus driver is. Gordon Korman Rules!!! Andre the Giant from Guysread

All right, Andre! Not only are you in the running for prizes, you have also given Gordon Korman three more points!
We also have some paper ballots out. I took some ballots and review forms to a school yesterday and won't get them until Friday. I'll get the results tabulated and posted Saturday. Then we'll move into the Final Four. And you can send reviews anytime to be eligible for prizes!

The first meeting of our Boys Book Club is this Saturday at 2 pm here at Imaginon. We 'll talk about The City of Ember and have John Austin, a Discovery Place volunteer, talk to us about the science of radiation and electricity. We have space for 15 guys and have 8 signed up already, so if you're a boy between 9-12 years old and have read The City of Ember, call 704-973-2720 to register. Our book clubs have always been fun. Hope to see you there!

Carl

PS--I just found out the latest casting choices for the Lightning Thief movie! I think they made good choices for Chiron and Medusa. I don't know the other actors/actresses, but it's good to see that the actress for Athena actually has a Greek name! (But Athena doesn't show up until the second book. Weird)

The Great and Powerful CARLMAN Goofs! Plus Our First Guy Event of 2009

It's Carl and it's painful to be corrected by a sith, but Darth Bill is absolutely right. He reminded me that I told you all that one of the prizes in the March Madness Author Shoo-out would be a Capt'n Eli graphic novel and a pack of Capt'n Eli cards.I looked back to space and time and saw that he was right! So, to be correct, let me tell you again what the prizes will be be:

A signed t-shirt and signed books by Kaza Kingsley, author of the fan-tastic Erec Rex series
A signed t-shirt and a signed book by Helen Hemphill
A Capt'n Eli graphic novel and pack of Capt'n Eli cards

The three guys who send us the most reviews of books by the 16 authors in this touramnet (J.K. Rowling, Kurtis Scaletta, Rick Riordan, Suzanee Collins, Helen Hemphill, Jeanne DuPrau, Jeff Smith, Jay Piscopo, Dave Barry, Jeff Kinney, Gordon Korman, Dan Gutman, Kaza Kingsley, Jon Scieszka, Neil Gaiman, Jenny Nimmo) will get to pick from these prizes. So send them and make yourself eleigible for one of the extremely cool prizes!!

BTW, Ms. Hemphill wrote to us about the tournament and losing by one vote:

I'm so bummed! I saw the balloting was closed and didn't know about paper ballots! Oh, well. I got the books and T-shirts off to you guys yesterday. Have a great tournament and keep reading! HH

I'm so sorry! I goofed again! But I tried to correct my goof in yesterday's post. We do have paper ballots and review forms here at Imaginon--feel free to use them, guys. You're a really good sport to send us those things anyway and we appreciate it!

Last Saturday we had our Boys Afternoon with Roald Dahl, Dr. West, and a Giant Peach. What a great time!! Dr. Mark West, English prof at UNCC, came and talked about Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Danny Champion of the World, and others. Dr. West, a very cool guy, knows a lot about Roald Dahl and told this very funny story about going to England to interview the author. Then he read us a hilarious chapter from Boy: Tales of Childhood, Dahl's autobiography. This chapter was about the time the author, as a young boy, put a dead mouse in a jar of candy!! (You can imagine the response Roald got from his dad!) Dr. West showed us how the author used that story when he wrote The Witches and how we can hold on to our funny stories and use them later on. After the talk, we had a snack break and then watched the animated movie James and the Giant Peach. As I said, what a great time!

The guys hang on Dr. West's every word!

Thanks, Dr. West!

The Elite Eight

The first round is over and, boy, did we have a couple of close ones! I'll show the results in just a minute but let me tell you something first. I made some paper brackets here at Imaginon so that guys could vote while in the library. It's really handy, especially when school groups come. Well, last week we had 3 guys use those paper ballots and those three guys made a difference. Here you go:

The J.K. Rowling/Kurtis Scaletta bracket was almost an upset. Rookie author Kurtis led in the early voting!! It was like the Pittsburg/East Tennessee State game this weekend, where it looked like #16-seed ETSU would upset #1-ranked Pittsburg. In the final voting, however, it was:
J.K. Rowling 25 online votes + 3 paper votes
Kurtis Scaletta 20 online votes

In the opposite bracket:
Rick Riordan 46 online votes + 1 paper vote + 3 more points for a review
Suzanne Collins 15 + 2

In another exciting contest:
Helen Hemphill and Jeanne DuPrau were tied at 13 votes each. The paper ballots came in and Helen Hemphill got 1 vote and Jeanne DuPrau got 2!!! So she won by one vote! (always remeber that your vote does count!)

In other brackets:
Jeff Smith 5 + 3
Jay Piscopo 19

Dave Barry 8 + 2 ///////////////////Gordon Korman 13 + 1
Jeff Kinney 15 + 1////////////////// Dan Gutman 7 + 2

Kaza Kingsley 19 + 2///////////////// Neil Gaiman 18 + 1
Jon Scieszka 11 + 1////////////////// Jenny Nimmo 9 + 2

Yes, that bracket was a heartbreaker for Helen Hemphill fans, especially since she emailed me on Friday and said that she'd send some T-shirts and signed books as prizes!! Maybe it would have made a difference if I'd said something. Anyway, the votes are in and we move on to the Elite Eight. That means that the winner in one bracket will go against the winner in the bracket below (not in the bracket directly across, as I mistakenly said last Monday)

And those brackets are:

J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter) vs///////////Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson, The 39 Clues) vs
Jeanne DuPrau (City of Ember series)////Jay Piscopo (Capt'n Eli graphic novels)

Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) vs///Gordon Korman (the Island Trilogy) vs
Kaza Kinglsey (Erec Rex series)////////Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book, Coraline)

Looks like we have another action-packed week of voting ahead! You have until noon Saturday to vote (and you can vote for more than one author at a time). Don't forget that we have paper ballots here at Imaginon. And we also have paper book review forms. Your local library may have them too. If they don't, ask them to call me (Carl) and I'll send them out. Remember that your author will get 3 more points for each review of one their books that you send. PLUS, you will be in the running for prizes. The three guys who send in the most reviews of books by these authors (J. K. Rowling, Kurtis Scaletta, Rick Riordan, Suzanne Collins, Helen Hemphill, Jeanne DuPrau, Jeff Smith, Jay Piscopo, Dave Barry, Jeff Kinney, Gordon Korman, Dan Gutman, Kaza Kingsley, Jon Scieszka, Neil Gaiman, or Jenny Nimmo) will get a choice of signed t-shirts and books by Kaza Kingsley, signed books and t-shirts by Helen Hemphill, or your pick of graphic novels and/or books from our fabulous giveaway collection. (Yes, I changed the prize list when I heard about Helen Hemphill's prizes. And, yes, you can write reivews by the authors that didn't get into the Elite Eight) So vote for your faves, send in those reviews, and make this round one as exciting as the last one!

Carl

The Tension Mounts!

Yes, guys, this is definitely the most exciting contest we've ever held! The J.K. Rowling/Kurtis Scaletta and the Helen Hemphill/Jeanne DuPrau brackets are still so close that no one can tell how they'll turn out! Meanwhile Kaza Kingsley has a lead over Jon Scieszka, but he has made a run since yesterday and picked up a few more votes. And that can happen with any of the brackets! You have until 6:00 PM Saturday to vote, so send them in! Remeber, you CAN vote for more than one author with each ballot!

Don't forget that we'll have the Boys Afternoon with Roald Dahl, Dr. West, and A Giant Peach at 2 pm tomorrow! Dr. West, English prof and very cool guy, will talk about Roald Dahl and the day he spent with the author! After that, we'll take a snack break and then show the animated movie James and the Giant Peach. Still time to sign up. If you're between 9-12 years old, call 704-973-2720 to register. (or have your parents call) And----this is a BOYS ONLY event!!!!! Yippeee!

See you there!

Carl