But March is also the month the we hold an annual March Madness contest, complete with prizes. The last two years we've held Book Series contests and Author Shoot-outs in which we filled out brackets, went through elimination rounds, etc. but this year we're going to keep it
simple and hold a
MARCH MADNESS SLAM DUNK CONTEST. Each review you send in will be worth one point (a "slam dunk"). The three guys with the most points at the end of March will be the first, second, and third place winners. Simple, huh?
BUT WAIT--THERE'S MORE!! You have chances to get THREE EXTRA POINTS! If you send us a review of any of the books listed below (which are terrific but don't get the attention they deserve), you'll make a "three-point shot" for three extra points. Here's the list:
Any book in the
Racing for Freedom trilogy by Alison Hart (scroll down and see the post of 2-24 for more info)
Any book in the
Sluggers/Barnstormers series (click
here and
here for reviews)
Any book in
The Tiger's Apprentice series (cl
It's Monday again but no blue Monday this week. We've got new Slam Dunks and you'll see that two guys have reviewed the Children's Theatre of Charlotte's production of Treasure Island. Those two guys also happen to be Michael and AXEL SIMONE. The first one to appraoch the basket is Michael:
Treasure Island: The Theatrical Drama
playing at Imaginon
When Jim Hawkins' father dies, he is put in charge of his mother's inn. But one day a very strange man named Billy Bones comes in. When Jim is put in possesion of a valuable map taking him to an island filled with treasure, he must avoid evil pirates, and he must be careful of whom he chooses as friends.I loved the play! It's a fast-paced story, and there's no waiting for the next scene to be put up because they make it part of the show. You won't get bored with this, and I guarantee you'll love it too!
Flight, Volume 1
In this great comic book about things that fly, there are a myriad of different stories both adventurous and humorous as many cartoonists band together to create Flight, Volume 1! Some of the more popular cartoonists are Kazu Kabushui, Kean Soo, and Jeff Smith. Amazing!
Right behind Michael is AXEL SIMONE:
I SAW THE TREASURE ISLAND PLAY TODAY. IT WAS GREAT. IT IS THE BEST PLAY EVER. IT IS ABOUT A BOY NAMED JIM HAWKINS. HE TRAVELS TO TREASURE ISLAND.ALONG THE WAY HE FIGHTS PIRATES WHILE SEARCHING FOR TREASURE. I RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE. BYE.
Next in line is Dakota T:
The next book that I'm reviewing is The London Eye Mystery. This is another mystery book that made me really have to think. This is about a brother and sister whose cousin comes for a visit. When they show him around and take him to the London Eye, he gets on. Thirty minutes later, the doors open and everybody comes out, except for their cousin. This is a great mystery for all ages and it puts your mind to the test. I really enjoyed it and would read it again.
I just finished the book The Phantom Tollbooth and it was amazing! Some parts were strange but overall it really hooked me. It was about a boy who finds a toll booth in his house with two coins. When he put one in he was lead to a magical place that had an interesting history. He eventually runs into a dog named Tock that had a clock in his belly area. He takes him to Dictionapolis where he goes from there on his quest to free Rhyme and Reason. But he has to go through an adventurous journey and many 'demons' to which are guarding the tower in which Rhyme and Reason are locked inside. Overall this book deserves a nine out of ten for its high action.
And finally Brian B comes to the line:
I'm reviewing No Arm In Left Field by Matt Christopher. Terry Delaney wants to play baseball with the local team but will his skin color make a difference? This is a great book, and it shows that skin color doesn't matter.
Swish!! Thanks, everyone! I agree with Dakota T about The Phantom Tollbooth. One of the funniest and most action-packed stories ever, especially if you like puns. I heard a great audiobook version of it--see my review here.This Fli
It's gone right down to the buzzer but we do have the winners! Oh, man, what an exciting finish!! Just like a championship game in which the game is decided in the last few seconds, the March Madness Slam Dunk Contest ends with a flurry of shots that leaves everyone amazed! Here we go!
First one on the court is the awesome AXEL SIMONE:
i have read, this book is not good for you.it is by pseudonymous bosch. cass' mom is kidnapped by the evil chef senor hugo while trying to rescue her mom she runs innto the midnight sun. [ouch that must hurt.] this is 1 of the funniest books ever. i loved it. i recommend it to everyone. Bye
i have read antsy does time. it is by neal shusterman. i loved it. it is a companion
book to the schwa was here. just like the schwa was here it is really rude. in this book there is a kid named gunnar umlaut who has only 6 months to live so antsy donates a month of his life to gunnar. i recommend it to everyone. Bye
i have read gabriels triumph. it is by alison hart. i loved it. in this book gabriel rides his favorite horse aristo in the saratoga chase. will he win? read to find out. i recommend it to everyone. bye.
i have read witch and wizard. it is by james patterson andgabrielle charbonett. i loved it. it is about whit and wisty allgood when they are accused of beuing a witch and wizard and thrown in prison. irecommend it to everyone. bye.
AXEL gets 6 points; three for his review of Gabriel's Triumph and three for the others.
After AXEL comes Jumpin' Justin B:
I am writing a review on Summer of the Monkeys.
It is about a boy named Jay who had a blue-tick hound named Rowdy and a sister named Daisy who had a crippled right leg. They used to live in Missouri sharecropping then they moved to the middle of the Cherokee Nation. One day he went down in the Ozark river bottoms and Rowdy treed a monkey; then they went to his Grandpa's store. When he got to his Grandpa's store, his Grandpa was sitting on the porch and told him about how a circus train wrecked and the monkeys got loose and there was a reward for the monkeys: two dollars apiece and for one, a hundred dollars. His Grandpa said it was probably one of those monkeys. His Grandpa handed him some traps. Then Daisy started talking about the Old Man of the Mountains, and Jay asked if he were a farmer and Daisy said he didn't have time for any farming because he was too busy taking care of the mountains and little creatures. Jay went back into the bottoms and set the traps out around the tree he saw the monkey in. He placed an apple above each trap and then he saw a little bunch of brush to crawl behind and watch. Before ten minutes was up, he heard monkeys. The monkeys started coming out of everywhere! Before the were about to grab an apple, a chimpanzee (the $100 monkey) came down out of the trees and plopped down in front of the trap. He kept screeching and grunting and telling the monkeys to stay away because it was a trap. He used one of his long arms and grabbed the apples and give them to the little monkeys. It sounded to Jay like the chimpanzee was laughing at Jay. Jay tried again, and a similar thing happened. The he went off to a spring he had found, got a drink, then Rowdy started barking and looked up on a tree limb; there sat the $100 monkey with his gunnysack, traps, and lunch. He got his bean shooter out, put a rock in the shooter, and shot the monkey where his belly button would have been. Then the chimpanzee sics all the monkeys on Jay. He doesn't look for a trail, he just runs! He runs through briers and tears his clothes. Finally he finds his way back home. Then he goes to his Grandpa's store again and talks about how he had been fooled. His Grandpa says he has something that might help: a net with a yellow ring to open the net and a blue ring to close it. He goes to his house and tries the n
By: Lauren,
on 7/27/2010
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Purdy, Director of Publicity
In my youth, I was often attracted to books with high sea adventure: Treasure Island, Moby Dick, Old Man and the Sea, and of course Robinson Crusoe. Of these books, I found Crusoe both familiar and disturbing. In a society of one, how do you stave off madness and create a meaningful existence? In my self-imposed isolated existence—no one understood me, the real me, therefore I am alone—I wrestled with faith and belief in God, or a higher power. I questioned the moral superiority of my parents, my teachers, the U.S. government (it was the 80s). Those days are far behind me now, but I suspect I’ll be revisiting these ideas again when I host author Rebecca Chace at the Bryant Park Reading Room.* Below is an article Chace wrote for Fiction Magazine that explores other famous writers’ reactions to Robinson Crusoe.
*You can meet Rebecca Chace today, July 27, at 12:30pm in beautiful Bryant Park. The outdoor Reading Room is just off 42nd St, between 5th and 6th Avenues in New York City. There, she’ll lead a discussion (free and open to the public) on Robinson Crusoe–and all registered attendees get a free copy of the book!
Looking for Robinson Crusoe
Shipwreck:
But it wasn’t.
It was much more mundane, though no less violent.
“Lie Like the truth” –Daniel DeFoe
Why do I need to circle around and invent, when a list of facts could do just as well or better: On an evening in October, your father dies suddenly of a heart attack. Eight weeks later, you find that the reason your husband has been almost completely absent through this abrupt shock into mourning has not been because of his work. Turns out he has another life in another country and another language. A woman with her own daughter the same age as our youngest. What he doesn’t have is an income and apparently he hasn’t had one for quite a while now. Turns out he is in love.
Turns out you are not so much in love, anymore.
I will always know the exact date and approximate time of these events. Time of death is something that strangers write down. It is often not so exact in a marria
By: Maryann Yin,
on 1/12/2011
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Actor Elijah Wood will return to Middle Earth in the two-part film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit.
Deadline New York reported: “Wood is confirmed to star in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit to be shot in New Zealand. In addition, he has signed on to play ‘Ben Gunn’ in Stewart Harcourt’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island along side Eddie Izzard.”
Besides Wood (pictured, via), other castmates returning from Lord of the Rings include: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf, and Andy Serkis as Gollum. At the moment, Orlando Bloom is rumored to be considering his return as Legolas.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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By:
Mary Burkey,
on 1/14/2008
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Hooray! The first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production medalists have been named! As chair of the committee that had the pleasure of choosing the titles, I can say that the decision came after deliberating many wonderful productions. We were amazed that the finest titles also covered a breadth and range of ages and interests. But the truly astonishing fact was discovered only after we had completed the entire process. We all felt the planets aligning when we realized that the author of the first Odyssey winner, Walter Dean Myers, was also the winner of the first Printz Award. It was meant to be.
The winner:
Jazz. By Walter Dean Myers. Narrated by James “D-Train” Williams and Vaneese Thomas. 43min. Live Oak Media. CS, $25.95 (9781430100195); CD, $28.95 (9781430100225).
“Jazz,” a production of Live Oak Media, takes the readalong to new heights as James “D-Train” Williams and Vaneese Thomas perform the work of Walter Dean Myers. Original music accompanies each poem's performance, resulting in a rhythmic representation of mood and tone. Separate tracks for the selections and lively inclusion of a glossary and timeline create a dynamic audiobook; part poetry, part nonfiction, and wholly authentic.
The Honor audiobooks:
Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy By L. A. Meyer. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren. 8hr. Listen & Live Audio. CD $37.95. (9781593160944).
Katherine Kellgren’s vocal athleticism takes listeners from the filthy streets of eighteenth century London to the high seas in Meyer’s fast-paced novel about a girl who stows away as a cabin boy.
Dooby Dooby Moo. By Doreen Cronin. Narrated by Randy Travis. 13.36min. Weston Woods/Scholastic. CS $24.95 (9780545042833). CD $29.95 (9780545042819).
Music and barnyard chatter enhance Randy Travis’ performance of Cronin’s comic tale of talented farm animals gone wild.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. By J. K. Rowling. Narrated by Jim Dale. 21hr. Listening Library. CS, $90 (9780739360408; CD, $90(9780739360415).
Jim Dale masters and maintains voices for all genders, ages, species, and emotions created by author J.K. Rowling in this final Harry Potter adventure.
Skulduggery Pleasant. By Derek Landy. Narrated by Rupert Degas. 7.5hr. HarperChildren’s Audio. CD, $27.95 (9780061341045).
Rupert Degas fleshes out a cast of characters including a “tweenage” girl, nefarious villains, and a skeleton detective. Music and sound effects mirror the mood of this bone-rattling mystery.
Treasure Island. By Robert Louis Stevenson. Narrated by Alfred Molina. 7hr. Listening Library. CD, $55 (9780739350836).
Stevenson’s pirate classic elegantly unfolds as Alfred Molina’s panoply of accents and the soundscape of the sea place listeners aboard the Hispaniola.
Listen and discover the best in audiobook literature.
Another one of our old friends and faithful witers is
cyber kid 303. We got a new post from him today:
I vote for these two: Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. A bunch of my friends get together every month for book club and we all just read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. It's about a kid named Jim who meets Captain Flint, a pirate with a saber cut across his cheek. Flint dies from drinking too much rum and leaves behind a treasure map. Other bad pirates come after Jim and his friends when they go to find the treasure. There are fights with swords, guns and cannons. Eventually, somebody finds the treasure and goes home with it, but I'm not going to give it away! Warning: there's a lot of old pirate language that's hard to understand, but even Jim can't understand it all.
Thanks,
cyber kid. I am
soooo glad that you liked
Treasre Island. That
has to rank as one of my all-time favorites. I think it's still
the greatest pirate story ever written!! I'll never forget that mystreious stranger coming into Jim's inn, or the time Jim faced a pirate coming at him with a knife and Jim held two pistols at him and said, "If you move any closer, I'll shoot." Did he?? Man, oh, man, you have to read it to find out!!!
If you guys read it, be sure tho get a copy with the illustrations (like this one) by the great N. C. Wyeth. (our library system has plenty!)
Well, cyber kid, that was a review, so you get
3 extra points!If you want more points, send in some more. That goes for everyone else, too!
Yo ho ho and looking for more reviews,
Carl
PS Hey, cyber kid, why don't you get the other guys in your book club to write to us? I thnk it would awesome!
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 11/16/2008
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In the next couple of months we are going to see three theatre productions all based on classic stories – The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Being a purist in these matters, I resolved that we would have to read the books together first…
Having just read the last three chapters of Treasure Island literally today, we will be starting A Christmas Carol this week, so I’ll report back on that one. It’s a story I’ve read several times myself and we’re looking forward to sharing it with our boys; and my mother has given us the audio-book too, read by Miriam Margoyles…
The other two were unknown entities. Of course I knew of them but I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I hadn’t actually read either of these classics before… but at the same time, it’s meant that our discussions of the book have been very much from the same stand-point: what’s going to happen next? Why did they do that? Can we have just one more chapter, pleeeease?
Both books are narrated in the first person. The language at times can be challenging to a modern reader but in both instances, the plot is so exciting and the descriptions so full and vivid that it’s worth the effort. I have to say, when we started The Prisoner of Zenda, I did wonder if I’d made a mistake: the beginning seemed turgid and the wit slightly precious: but the excitement built up so quickly that in fact I was being presented with the book for a book session at all hours, not just bedtime. By having them read aloud to them, children don’t get hung up on the difficult words anyway. We’ve learnt lots about the parts of castles and ships – but that wasn’t what it was all about; that’s just a side-line. What we’ve had are two great stories. Little brother’s “Wicked!” to describe The Prisoner of Zenda might not have been fully understood by Anthony Hope, but he can take it as a complement!
These stories are perhaps not what we would term multicultural but they do all espouse a strong line on tolerance and understanding, and doing what is right. They put across notions of right and wrong without preaching and without over-simplifying any issues involved – Long John Silver and Ben Gunn of Treasure Island are complex characters; Rudolf Rassendyll, the true hero of The Prisoner of Zenda has to make some pretty tough decisions against himself in order to maintain the status quo.
We have more than enjoyed reading these books together and it is not difficult to understand how they have stood the test of time. There are classics in every culture: which classics from your culture are you reading to your children?
Good job, all you reviewers! And Carl man, you rock for putting on a contest where kids review books. Pure awesomeness, that.
I've finally gotten my review of Leviathan up on my blog - what a fabulous book! I think all your reviewers will love it - there's something for everyone there.