Calling all Rick Riordan Fans. Join the "largest demigod gathering in history!"

Rick Riordan has written yet another splendid series called the Heroes of Olympus and you can join the celebration on October 12th by watching a live broadcast. Take a look at the Heroes of Olympus website to find out more about this event, to learn about the new series, to watch videos, to play games, and much more. 

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham with the “Ham it up” video contest

Seuss fans can enter to win a cash prize, a year supply of Ham I Am! products, Seuss memorabilia, books and more!

CELEBRATE THE 50^TH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. SEUSS’S GREEN EGGS AND HAM

 WITH THE “HAM IT UP” VIDEO CONTEST

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s classic Green Eggs and Ham Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. have launched the “HAM It Up” video contest, calling for fans across the United States to channel their own Sam-I-Am and submit a video capturing their interpretation of a scene from the book. The grand prize winner will receive a $2,000 cash prize, a year’s supply of Ham I Am! products, a beautifully framed 50^th Anniversary Green Eggs and Ham print, a flip camera and a Dr. Seuss library of books. Originally published in 1960, Green Eggs and Ham has sold over 13 million copies in North America.

The “HAM It Up” video contest kicks-off on September 21 and will end on November 3, 2010.  Details on how to enter and official contest rules are available on Seussville at http://GreenEggsContest.seussville.com.  Entrants can submit their video by upload, in-browser recording, or via a YouTube url. The contest platform will display videos within a player so that they are shareable and embeddable. Entrants are encouraged to promote their video to friends and family to boost their ratings. The general public will decide which participants best tapped into their inner Sam-I-Am during a public voting period. The videos with the most votes will be judged by the Random House Children's Books team and Dr. Seuss Enterprises to determine the best overall acts. Prizes will be awarded to one grand prize winner and ten runners up based on the following criteria: creativity and originality, representation of the contest theme and public votes. The ten runners up will receive a $100 grocery gift card from the National Pork Board, framed Dr. Seuss art, and a Dr. Seuss library of books (please see contest website for official prizing details). http://greeneggscontest.seussville.com/greeneggsham/

Dr. Seuss fans can also add to their bookshelves with two new releases! In honor of the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham Random House Children’s Books released a limited edition of the title on August 24, 2010. This PARTY EDITION includes a foiled-cover and features the complete original text and art at the regular edition price of $8.99. Random House will also release a board book, DO YOU LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM? on October 26, 2010 (Ages 0-3 / $9.99). This latest addition to the Dr. Seuss Nursery Collection title is filled with interactive fun for baby, and includes a plastic green egg that children can squeak, spin, and see themselves in with the mini-mirror on the back.  

Banned Books Week - A review of Olive's Ocean, a challenged book

For my last post for Banned Books Week I have a review to share with you. I read Olive's Ocean a few years ago and yet I still remember it very clearly. Growing up is often a confusing time for young people, and in this book Kevin Henkes tells a story that addresses some of issues that teens deal with.

Olive’s Ocean

Kevin Henkes
Fiction
For ages 9 to 12
HarperCollins, 2003, 978-0060535438
Martha never really knew Olive Barstow and she is shocked when Olive’s mother arrives at the house to give Martha a journal entry that Olive wrote before she was killed by a car. In it Olive mentions that she hopes to make friends with Martha and she thinks Martha is the “nicest person” in their class. Martha can’t help feeling sad that she never the chance or took the time to get to know shy Olive.

   Even after she and her family go to her grandmother’s house at the beach Martha cannot rid herself of Olive’s memory. Nor can she really share how she feels with anyone in her family. Though she does share other confidences with her grandmother, Godbee, whom Martha loves and admires a great deal. She tells Godbee for example that she rather likes Jimmy Manning, a boy whom until then was more of an annoyance than anything else. Now Jimmy seems to be interested her and she is sure that she has fallen in love with him.

   She also tells Godbee that she wants to become a writer. Godbee is very supportive of the idea and tells Martha about a short story she wrote when she was young. The story gives Martha an idea – it gives her way to give poor Olive’s mother a gift.

   In then end Martha discovers that Jimmy is not whom she thought he was, and the gift for Olive’s mother is never really delivered, but Martha comes through a difficult time and she makes peace with both Olive and with herself.

   In this beautifully paced novel, Kevin Henkes explores several months in a girl’s life as she struggles with the process of growing up, and as she tries to comes to terms with the death of a schoolmate. Growing up is a rarely an easy process and this 2004 Newbery Honor title perfectly captures the confusion that many young people feel at this moment in their lives.

Banned Books Week - A review of Bridge to Terabithia, a challenged book

The first time I read Bridge to Terabithia, I was hooked after reading just a couple of pages. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried when Leslie dies, and I grieved with Jess as he tries to come to terms with losing his friend. I found the story to be powerful, and I imagined that it would help people of all ages come to terms with their own grief after losing someone they loved. I think it would be a terrible shame if readers could not borrow this title from their school or local library because it was challenged and banned.

Bridge to Terabithia

Katherine Paterson

Fiction

Ages 8 to 12

HarperCollins, 2007, 0-06-122728-5

   Jess is determined that this year, his fifth grade year, he is going to be the fastest runner in his school. He has been practicing his running every morning all summer and he is sure that now he is ready, really ready. Alas for Jess, for on the first day of a school a new kid in his class wins the daily race. Worse still this new kid is his new neighbor and she is a girl who is called Leslie. Jess is both furious and mortified, and he wants nothing to do with Leslie and her strange ways.

   Over time however Jess comes to accept Leslie’s friendship and then to embrace it. She is such a fascinating and wonderful person, full of ideas and stories and always willing to share her wonderful imagination with him, Jesse Aarons. The two children build an imaginary world in the woods near their houses which they name Terabithia. Leslie is the queen of this world, and Jess is the king and they have to swing over a creek on a rope to get to it. For Jess, Terabithia and Leslie are the best parts of his life and he cannot imagine his world without them.

   Then, suddenly, Leslie is taken from him when the creek rope snaps and Leslie is killed in the fall. In the emptiness that follows her death, Jess cannot help feeling as if both he and Terabithia are going to wither without Leslie’s presence.

   With great sensitivity and understanding Katherine Patterson explores a lonely boy’s first true friendship and his overwhelming feelings of grief when his friend tragically dies. Patterson is neither maudlin nor overly sentimental. Instead she looks at the ways in which a friendship can form. She also shows her young readers that grief is not some easy to package emotion that can be set aside once the prescribed time is up. Instead grieving is a complicated, messy and confusing process that has no rules or guidelines. One just has to muddle through as best one can.

   Perhaps the best past of this book is that Patterson has made Jess realistically imperfect and easy to identify with as he struggles through life.

  This book won the 1978 Newbery Medal.

   

Banned Books Week - The top ten most frequently challenged books of 2009

Here are the top ten most frequently challenged books of 2009:

1. ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle 
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs

2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality

3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide

4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee 
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence

8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker 
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group






You can see a listing of the books challenged or banned in 2009-2010 here on the ALA website.