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)