Mission: READ

Looking for a great sports book to read for Read for the Gold? Look no further–do I have some awesome reads for you!

What if the fate of your town rested on a single baseball game?  That’s the case for Tom and his hometown in The Boy Who Saved Baseball by John H. Ritter. You see, developers want to take over Dillontown and build expensive houses and retail centers in what was once just a rural California town. And the main road–will go right through the kids’ beloved baseball field.  At a town council meeting, land-owner Doc Altenheimer propses a deal: if the kids from Dillontown can beat the kids from the nearby town with lots of money and fancy equipment then he’ll tell the developers to get lost and the field will be saved. The team gets help from a mysterious stranger, Cruz de la Cruz, and Dante Del Gato, a former major-leaguer turned hermit who lives on the outskirts of town. Can they win the game?  I’ll never tell…. But I will tell you this…it’s a Rebecca Caudill book this year. 

NPR sports commentator and Sports Illustrated writer John Feinstein has written a fabulous new sports mystery. In Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery, teenagers Steven and Susan Carol win a sportswriting contest and a chance to cover the NCAA Championships at the Superdome in New Orleans. While poking around “backstage” the two overhear MSU’s star point guard being warned that he must “throw” the final game…or else. Steven and Susan Carol know they have the sports scoop of the year, if only they can figure out who is blackmailing Chip Graber and why..and in only 48 hours.

ESPN’s Mike Lupica has also written a new-ish basketball book, Travel Team. When short-guy Danny Walker gets cut from the local travel team for the wrong reasons, does he give up? Nope–he and a bunch of other guys decide to start their own team with the help of Danny’s dad, who washed out of the NBA and is battling alcoholism. Can Danny’s dad come through, and, if not, can the team still come out winners?

You’ve heard of Negro Leagues baseball…you’ve heard of women playing baseball in “a league of their own.” In A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson by Michelle Y. Green you can read about a female pitcher in the 1950s who had a tremendous passion for the game…and two strikes against her. Yes, there were women pitchers in the Negro Leagues, and yes, this is a true story. In fact, this quick-reading Rebecca-Caudill-nomineeing (is that a word) biography includes the pictures to prove it!

Ever love something so much you wanted to keep it all for yourself and not let someone else spoil it?  Annie loves to run…to run barefoot and fast and free. And lately she needs her running more than ever–her mom is pregnant, her grandfather is having trouble remembering, and her best friend Max just doesn’t seem the same. And lately she is being pressured by everyone, it seems, to join her school’s track team.  How can she explain that she doesn’t run to win? Sharon Creech’s Heartbeat is pure poetry–literally. 

Want to know more about The Boy Who Saved Baseball, Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery, Travel Team, A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, or Heartbeat?  The check them out and read them yourself! Or listen to the book-on-CD of The Boy Who Saved Baseball.

Mission: Accomplished

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We are just 12 days away from the Opening Ceremonies for Read for the Gold! This reading program takes place from 1/30 to 3/10.  It’s easy to take part–just read books and win medals.

• Read 100 pages: win a bronze medal prize
• Read 500 pages: choose a silver medal prize
• Read 1000 pages: choose a gold medal prize and get a ticket to our Closing Ceremonies with the just-about-to-open U.S. Cellular Coliseum

Here are just a few of the businesses providing this year’s prizes: Pro Putt, Steak n Shake, Krispe Kreme, the Chicago White Sox, Qdoba, Taco Bell, Chevy’s, Cold Stone Cremery, Noodles, Skate n Place.

Check back later for some great sports books to read and our Read for the Gold! Trivia Contest.

Mission: Accomplished

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I took our Winter Break off from this blog…but not from books.  Here’s what I read over break: Bound by Donna Jo Napoli, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan, and most of Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo. I also have almost finished reading Flush by Carl Hiassen to my daughter and almost finished listening to Loch by Paul Zindel on CD (I have already read that one, but it is a good story to listen to). Plus, I can’t forget all the Curious George books I read to my son.  No rest for the reader!

But that’s not why I’m writing now. Today I want to share the fantasy books I talked about during Books and Bites.  Fantasy is one of my favorite genres (the other is sci fi), and so it is usually difficult to pick which books to share. However, this time, I tried to talk about a few “older” ones that you may have never heard of or gotten around to reading.

And all the books I talked about have sequels.  I think that when an authors write good fantasy books, they are reluctant to leave the world and the characters they created and that’s why we get so many series and sequels.  And if it is a GREAT fantasy book, readers won’t quit pestering the author to write more and more…

Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones has got to be one of the funniest fantasies I have ever read.  What would happen if someone from Earth discovered a portal to another world filled with dragons, dwarves, gnomes, elves, and all those other things we thought only existed in fairy tales?  Would that person a) keep it a secret and visit alone once in awhile? b) take a few close friends on a fantastic trip? or c) find a way to make a ton of money taking toursists there for the vacation of a lifetime? Well, Mr. Chesney chose ”c” and has taken Pilgrim Parties there for going on forty years. He pays (not well) the people of the fantasy world to give vacationers the stuff of legend–tourists get to battle and defeat the Dark Lord, the evil dictator of the land. Of course, it is all staged, and quite frankly, the people are getting sick of playing their parts–but they can’t quit because Chesney has a real demon to make sure they don’t. When mild-mannered Derk becomes the Dark Lord, he, his family, and their griffins may be able to find a way to fight back and take back their world. I love how this book pokes fun at the conventions of fantasy and tells a great story at the same time. The sequel is Year of the Griffin.

When Gregor jumps to save his sister who falls down a vent in the laundry room of his New York City apartment building and comes face-to-face with a giant cockroach, that is just the beginning of his adventures in the Underland. In Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, Gregor finds that he and his sister Boots are believed to be fulfilling an ancient prophecy that includes adventures with humans riding giant bats, huge spiders, and enormous evil rats. Although Gregor knows he isn’t the legendary Warrior they believe him to be, he goes along with the quest, hoping to find some clues to his missing father’s whereabouts and trying to find a way out of the Underland. There is a ton of battle action and clues to figure out about the prophecy along the way. Sequels are Gregor and the Prohecy of Bane and Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods.

What would you do if your father had been kidnapped? If a gangster in a bunny suit was lurking around your house?  If your baby sister was accidentally shrunk, e-mailed, and lost on the world wide web?  Well, if you are Titus and Pandora Strega-Borgia, you gather your pet yeti, griffin, dragon, giant tarantula, and slightly thawed cryogenically frozen grandmother and practice some Pure Dead Magic, of course. Author Debi Gliori makes this fantasy so fantastic and so funny that I don’t want to spoil the details for you.  Just know that you won’t be able to wait to read Pure Dead Wicked and Pure Dead Brillant.

Want to know more about Dark Lord of Derkholm, Gregor the Overlander, and Pure Dead Magic? The check them out and read them yourself!

Mission: Accomplished

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