Wednesday, March 2, 2011

March Madness "Free Throw" Contest!

March is here again, guys. Glorious, glorious March! The month for one of the year's great events, March Madness, otherwise known as the NCAA Basketball Tournament. March Madness is always fun. Every year there are exciting games. Every year there are major upsets. Every year some team from comes out of nowhere and surprises the whole world. (Remember Butler getting into the championship game last year?) It's a great time of year! And so, in honor of this great event, we hold a March Madness contest of reading every year! This year the theme will be the March Madness "Free Throw" Contest.

The rules are simple. Each book review you send in will be a "free throw" worth one point. The three boys with the most points at the end of the contest will win prizes from our outstandingly cool prize box. There are books, t-shirts, stickers, and many more things is that box--as you can see from the picture. Easy, right?

Wait a minute, did you say that's too easy?? All right, I'll make it more interesting! If you send in reviews of any of the following books, then each review will be a "three-point free throw" and count as three points. These are books that I think are great and don't get the recognition they deserve:

The Tiger's Apprentice, Tiger's Blood, and Tiger Magic--all by Laurence Yep. These books are Terrific with a capital "T" that stands for "Tiger." See my review here.





The Chronicles of Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander. Outstanding! More guys need to read them. See my reviews here.





Any nonfiction book by Russell Freedman. I'm currently reading his book on World War I called The War to End All Wars. I also read his book Washington at Valley Forge and was deeply impressed. (see my review here) Mr.Freedman is one terrific writer and you guys should get to know him!



The Case of Case of Mistaken Identity and The Ghostwriter Secret by Mac Barnett. I really enjoy these Brixton Brothers books and hope I can build an audience for them.





Got that? Wait another minute--that's still not challenging enough? OK, then, I'll give you a chance to earn five points for a "Half Court Free Throw" by reading either The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings or The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. My admiration for the first book knows no bounds. It's an epic story about growing up and taking responsibility but it's long and I think it scares guys off. But I bet you MANLY MEN won't be scared of it!! And The Hound of the Baskervilles is a terrific Book Every Guy Should Read. (That link is from a post from our brother blog, Boys Rock Boys Read. Scroll way down on that post to see what I said about The Hound of the Baskervilles) These books are older and longer but they are T-Riffic!! and I want more guys to read them.

OK--have you got all that? The contest runs through March 31. The winners will be announced on April 1. If you need instructions on how to send in reviews, they're all there on the left-hand side of the page. I'll publish the reviews but we are too busy for me to post them every day. So if you send a review and don't see it right away, don't worry. I'm going to do my best to post them twice a week. AND--don't forget that you can review graphic novels, biographies, nonfiction or audiobooks! So get on the ball and start shooting those "free throws!" Ha ha--get on the ball!! Get it?? Oh, well...

3 comments:

Trina said...

Recently, I had to prohibit Super A from reading a series of graphic novels that he so wanted to read. The content was simply too mature for him. He actually cried and was about it. My challenge was to find a series of books, because he loves series, that he would say he loved just as much. I suggested Bones. They don't look anything like manga, so at first he rejected one I bought, Vol. 1. This week I tucked it in his book bag and told him to just give it a try for silent reading. He hasn't stopped talking about it and just requested that I get the next in the series. Thank you for suggesting this series to us! I am going to write about this tomorrow in my blog. I hope it's okay that I mention your recommendation to us.

children's books said...

Wow definitely some great books on show there!

Tammy said...

My children just finished The 39 Clues series. They discuss them with their friends and are anxiously awaiting the next book to be published. If you want to see your son crave reading material, I recommend this series!