We Have A Final Four

Hello Readers,

We meaning here that the universe has a final four…I on the other hand have nothing.  All of the books I picked to make it to the final four our out.  My last hope was poetically The Last Hero (Kansas) and they fell to the wrath of little Raven’s Gate (VCU).  Who would have predicted that an 11 seed who had to play in the very first round would make a run like Raven’s Gate.  It is a great book and will probably be many people’s Cinderella pick to make it to the finals.

So with all of the initial rounds finished the final four stands at…

Pendragon (Kentucky) vs I,Q (UConn)

and

The Hobbit (Butler) vs Raven’s Gate (VCU)

I personally would like to see The Hobbit make it back to the finals and take on I,Q, but any of these books would make for a great final and hopefully give some lads a few new titles to check out.

The final four games will be held on April 2 and the national championship is set for April 4.  See you then.

Read on,

Mr. H

On to the Elite Eight…but my Brackets are Toast

Hello Readers,

Last night we had the first games of the Sweet Sixteen and I don’t think I could have done worse!  Wow, did both my West and Southeast brackets take a hit last night.

In the West I had Ship Breaker (Duke) going all the way to the Final Four, and they sure tanked out last night.  I also had The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (San Diego St) making it to the next round and falling to Ship Breaker (Duke).  That is not going to happen and my West bracket is dead.

The winners of last night games were Moon Over Manifest (Arizona), they must have channeled the spirit of John Newbery for that impressive win, and I,Q (UConn).  I have strangely not read either of these books, which has always been one of the secondary purposes of this book tournament…get some new titles swimming out there in our world and maybe challenge some students to pick up new books.  I will be sure to put both of these books on my To Be Read pile.

The Southeast was not kind to me last night either.  I had Guys Read: Funny Business (BYU) going all the way to the Final Four after beating The Scorch Trials (Pitt).  That now is a false dream.  I started off picking this bracket well, but it has all fallen apart thanks to Airborn (Florida) and The Hobbit (Butler).

Now my only hope rests in the capable hands of Behemoth (Ohio St) and The Lost Hero (Kansas).  The East and Southwest bracket games get started tonight and the only two books I have left are Behemoth and The Lost Hero.  But, don’t count me out I picked those two books to make it to the final game and Behemoth to come out on top. 

What a wild ride!

Read On,
Mr. H

2011 Books and Basketball…On to the Sweet Sixteen

Hello Readers,

Well that was a crazy weekend for our Books and basketball Championship.  A few very close games that I needed to go the other way (Smekday, Hugo Crabret and Fablehaven really screwed my brackets up for that last round), but at this point if my three number one seeds hold on and little Guys Read: Funny Business (BYU) hold on then I am set for the next round.  How are you doing in your picks.

So the Sweet Sixteen is set.  The games are as follows…

East

Behemoth (Ohio St) vs Pendragon (Kentucky)

Peter and the Starcatchers – Sword of Mercy (Marquette) vs The War to End all Wars (UNC)

I should be alright in the bracket if Behemoth makes it to the final four.

West

Ship Breaker (Duke) vs Moon Over Manifest (Arizona)

Printz vs Newbery how about that seredipity!

I,Q (UConn) vs The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (San Diego St)

I have done OK in this bracket.  If The True Meaning of Smekday (Texas) hadn’t found a way to lose yesterday I would have all of the teams picked correctly.  Moon Over Manifest is on a run I did not see coming.  Must be the power of the Newbery.

Southwest

The Lost Hero (Kansas) vs Trackers (Richmond)

Raven’s Gate (VCU) vs Fever Crumb (Florida St)

My picks in the bracket are all a mess.  The only team I picked that is still alive is The Lost Hero.  Now if they win out and get to the final four I’m square, but I didn’t see 12 Trackers, 11 Raven’s Gate or 10 Fever Crumb making this far.  Well done to them all!

Southeast

The Hobbit (Butler) vs A Tale Dark and Grimm (Wisconsin)

Guys Read: Funny Business (BYU) vs Airborn (Florida)

This was the one number one seed that I didn’t pick to go to the final four, so I need Guys Read to make a run here and make it to the final four.  I am really happy for  A Tale Dark and Grimm, I just finished that book last week and it was great. You should really check it out!

The next round gets going on Thursday and Friday (March 24 and 25).  Check back in then and see was chaos unsues.

Read On,

Mr. H

2011 Books and Basketball…Are Your Brackets Busted?

Hello Readers,

Well, we have round two of the Books and Basketball Championship under way and a few of you may have a few bracket busters….I know I do.

The East Bracket had only two games and they both turned out as expected The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter (WVU) managed the Children of the Lamp (Clemson).

The West Bracket saw four games, a couple of them not really very challenging.  I,Q (Connecticut) destroyed the baseball book Change Up (Bucknell), sending them back to the minor leagues.  They will now see Dark Life (Cincinnati) after Dark Life took down Crocodile Tears (Missouri).  Looks like more tears for Alex Rider fans.

The other games in the West had The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (SDST) taking out the little 13 Words by Lemony Snicket (Northern Colorado) and Candyshop Wars (Temple) beating I Am David (Penn St).

At this point I had picked all of the books correctly.  Then came the Southwest.

In the Southwest bracket there was again only two games and I got them both wrong.  First The Dreamer (Vanderbilt) went down to No. 12 Trackers (Richmond) and then the 13th seeded Ranger’s Apprentice: Halt’s Peril sticks a knife in Lawnboy Returns (Louisville) by one point!

The Southeast Bracket had a full round of games and I managed to pick all the books correctly, save one…rotten Fang.

So, the Scorch Trials (Pitt) beats and beats up Captain Underpants (UNC-A).  The Hobbit (Butler) gets a boost from its upcoming movie reboot and takes out Maniac Magee (ODU).  Fantasy Baseball (K-State) by Alan Gratz uses it’s birthday (it was released yesterday) to get by The 39 Clues: Vesper Rising (Utah St). A Tale Dark and Grimm (Wisc) had no trouble with Sir Charlie (Belmont).  Guys Read: Funny Business (BYU) takes out Long Walk to Water (Wofford).  They will face Cosmic (Gonzaga) after they end Artemis Fowl: Time Paradox’s run.  My one mistake in the bracket was taking Fang (Mich St) past Scat (UCLA).  I actually had Fang going on to beat Airborn (Florida) in the next round.  No dice for me there.  By the way Airborn (FLA)did beat Wolven (UCSB) by a lot to move on.

A lot of match-ups to come today.  Check back and see what the results are and hit that comment button we would love to hear how your picks are doing.

Read On,

Mr. H

Let the Big Show Begin

Hello Readers,

With the first four games in the bag we are finally ready to get this show on the road for real.  To recap the early games….

In the East, Clemson won the right to be called The Children of the Lamp and Mockingjay (UTSA) made it past The Dangerous Book for Boys (Alabama St).  Children of the Lamp will move on to see The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter (West Virginia) and Mockingjay (UTSA) will have the joy of seeing Behemoth (Ohio St).

In the Southwest bracket VCU has won the right to be called Raven’s Gate.  They will move on to face Lockdown (Georgetown).

Finally in the Southeast bracket, the first game of the first four saw UNC-Asheville taking out UA-Little Rock in overtime to become Captain Underpants.  They will now take their underpants power up against The Scorch Trials (Pitt).

The First games start around 12:00 today.  Stay tuned we will update when we can.  Enjoy the tournament and let the best books win!

Mr. H

Books and Basketball Begins

Hello Sports (Reading) Fans,

Last night the NCAA basketball tournament got underway with a few first round games that didn’t seem to make sense to a non-basketball guy like myself.  I am used to the tournament starting with a whole bunch of games and the crazy excitement of lots of games at the same time. 

Now we have two games on Tuesday, another two games on Wednesday and then things get crazy on Thursday.  I sort of miss the zero to 100 style of tournament.

So officially in the East Bracket Clemson University has won the right to be called 12 seeded Children of the Lamp.  In the Southeast bracket UNC-Asheville has won the right be called  16 seed Captain Underpants (what an honor).

Today we will see if Mockingjay (UTSA) will be able to join the big dance, or if The Dangerous Book For Boys (Alabama St) will send Mockingjay back to District 13.  We will also see if USC or VCU will win the right to be called 11 seed Raven’s Gate.

So here we go with the Books and Basketball Championship.  How are you feeling about the brackets?  Who is making it to the final four.  Hit that comment button and tell us who is going to win.

Read On,

Mr. H

Welcome Tom Angleberger

Hello Readers,

Yesterday was a huge day in the SMS Guys Read world… We were lucky enough to be visited by Tom Angleberger, the great author of the number 2 seed out of the Western Bracket…The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.

We here at SMS have had a fair number of author visitors over the past few year, and they have all been great, but I cannot think of a better author visit then what we had yesterday. Mr. Angleberger has a way of connecting with an audience of students that will have them engaged, laughing and maybe most importantly listening.

Here are a few pics from the presentation.

Angleberger started with a semi-professional juggling presentation that was fairly mind-blowing.  He then brought a few students…all strangly named “Larry” to show off some of their juggling skills.

After the excitement generated by juggling Koosh Balls we moved on to better understanding the tone of the book.  At this point we needed to know who Yoda was, understand origami and be able to identify pants.  Luckily for our students Mr. Angleberger was able to help us with all of those topics, he even drew us a pair of pants.

Once we were fully educated on the magic of pants the story of Kellen and the embarrassing stain was recounted to us. 

Visual aides were presented and students were to keep track of the number of times the word “pee” was uttered.  It was 23 for those interested in such data.

At last Origami Yoda was revealed and his knowledge was fully experienced by our whole 6th grade team.  I do believe that many of our 6th grades now truly believe in the power of the Force.

We were even introduced to Italian and German versions of the book.  Germany took an unfortunate spill off the stage…sorry Germany!

Next came the portion of the show that was seriously cool.  Each student was given a small sheet of green paper and with the help of another “Larry” we all folded an easy Origami Yoda together.

 Here are some pictures of the fruits of our labor.

 

 

 

Our helper “Larry” even got a little funky after the folding…

 

  After a few questions from the audience we dismissed the large group we set up a signing line that was a lot bigger than I anticipated. We had built some excitement with our After-School Extravaganza and lots of students had books they were looking forward to getting autographed.

Thank You Mr. Angleberger…We all had a blast and we all are looking forward to Darth Paper Strikes Back!

Read On,

Mr. H

2011 Books and Basketball Championship

Hello Readers,

The conference basketball tournaments are finished, the teams have been selected, the brackets built and we are ready to go!

If you are still unsure about what we are doing take a look at our posts from last year. 

Take a look at our Guys Read brackets and see where your favorite books have been seeded.

GuysRead2011BooksandBasketball

*One typing error..the 12 seed in the Southwest should read The 39 Clues: Vesper Rising (Utah St)

The first round games begin on March 15 (Beware the Ides of March!!!).  Check back often for our updates and feel free to hit that comment button and tell us what you are thinking. 

Do you agree with our seeds?  Will your book make a run?  Who is going to win it all?

Read on,

Mr. H

Origami Yoda After-School Extravaganza…The Aftermath

Readers,

First, a big thank you to the nearly 100 students who stayed after school to participate in the Origami Yoda After-School Extravaganza.  We had a blast!

Now for some pics.  We tried to take as many pictures as we could during the event and here are a few of the best shots.

So what do you think?  We had a great time and we have more pics but this should keep you busy for a few minutes.  We look forward to next Tuesday and our Author visit.  We are truly pumped up and ready to go now.

Read On,

Mr. H

Origami Yoda After-School Extravaganza

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to SMS Guys Read, a blog to support our school’s Guys Read club.

As you well know, Tom Angleberger, the author of the fantastic book…The Strange Case of Origami Yoda will be in our school next Tuesday.  I preparation for this epic visit you may want to start a comment discussion chain dealing with the book.

Below you will find a link to the commenting section of our site.  Please feel free to hit that comment button and tell us what you thought of the book.  You can write reviews, make predictions for the next book (Darth Paper Strikes Back) or ask the author a question. 

Some of you will get to the site after others have already commented.  Feel free to respond to current comments and start a discussion.  Our site is moderated, which means the comments must be seen by Mr. H and released before you see them.  Make sure your comments are school appropriate and have fun talking up The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.

Read on,

Mr. H